Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II
Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II
Submarines and their Weapons - Aircraft of World War II
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Publishing<br />
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Page 2: Fieseler Fi 103s - Vis - line the corridor <strong>of</strong> an underground factory.
Contents<br />
INTRODUCTION 6<br />
CHAPTER ONE<br />
JET AIRCRAFT 8<br />
CHAPTER TWO<br />
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT 34<br />
CHAPTER THREE<br />
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS 44<br />
CHAPTER FOUR<br />
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT 52<br />
CHAPTER FIVE<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 60<br />
CHAPTER SIX<br />
AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS 84<br />
CHAPTER SEVEN<br />
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES 90<br />
CHAPTER EIGHT<br />
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES 100<br />
CHAPTER NINE<br />
ARTILLERY 108<br />
CHAPTER TEN<br />
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS 120<br />
CHAPTER ELEVEN<br />
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS 128<br />
CHAPTER TWELVE<br />
NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS 138<br />
INDEX 142
Introduction<br />
Before we begin to examine the large <strong>and</strong> diverse<br />
array <strong>of</strong> secret weapons produced in Germany<br />
before <strong>and</strong> during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, we should perhaps<br />
define what is meant by the term 'secret'. Most<br />
weapons are developed in secret - or at least, under<br />
conditions <strong>of</strong> stringent security - whether in times <strong>of</strong><br />
peace or war, if only because, as the old adage has it,<br />
forewarned is forearmed. In Germany's case, there<br />
was an added imperative: the Versailles Treaty which,<br />
at the end <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I, forbade her to develop (<strong>and</strong><br />
even to possess) certain categories <strong>of</strong> weapons, such<br />
as aircraft <strong>and</strong> tanks. Development programmes for<br />
these weapons had to be carried out in absolute secrecy,<br />
since the ultimate risk (though probably a small<br />
one by the time these development programmes were<br />
under way) was the occupation <strong>of</strong> Germany by the<br />
victorious Allies. In many cases, up until the moment<br />
that Hitler signalled his intention to revoke the Treaty<br />
unilaterally, the projects were actually based outside<br />
Germany: in Holl<strong>and</strong>, the Soviet Union, Sweden <strong>and</strong><br />
in particular Switzerl<strong>and</strong>.<br />
In the strict sense, then, when we address the topic<br />
<strong>of</strong> German secret weapons <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, we are<br />
faced with an enormous task. But the term 'secret<br />
weapons' has a more precise meaning in general use:<br />
it implies something which goes beyond the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> a piece <strong>of</strong> more or less mundane equipment<br />
in conditions <strong>of</strong> secrecy. It implies a genuinely new<br />
concept, something truly out <strong>of</strong> the ordinary, which<br />
simply could not work without a new underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
<strong>of</strong> physical science or chemistry; a new mastery <strong>of</strong><br />
technology; or some great leap <strong>of</strong> creative, imaginative<br />
invention. In the place <strong>and</strong> at the time in question,<br />
there was certainly no lack <strong>of</strong> those.<br />
WUNDERWAFFEN<br />
Perhaps the alternative term frequently used in Germany<br />
at the time - Wunderwaffen - comes closer to<br />
defining the true nature <strong>of</strong> these secret devices, for<br />
they were <strong>of</strong>ten truly things <strong>of</strong> wonder, being either<br />
completely new <strong>and</strong> hitherto undreamed-<strong>of</strong> outside a<br />
small select group, or achieving previously unthinkable<br />
levels <strong>of</strong> performance thanks to breakthrough<br />
innovations in science <strong>and</strong> technology. Some <strong>of</strong> them,<br />
it is true, were 'ideas whose time had come', in that<br />
the basic principle was understood, but had not yet<br />
been successfully applied, <strong>and</strong> in these cases, teams<br />
<strong>of</strong> scientists <strong>and</strong> engineers in America, Britain <strong>and</strong><br />
Germany (<strong>and</strong> sometimes elsewhere: there were several<br />
significant advances made by Italy) were engaged<br />
in a headlong race to get the first reliable working version<br />
onto the battlefield. The development <strong>of</strong> the jet<br />
aircraft <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> radar, not to mention the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> nuclear fission, st<strong>and</strong> out amongst those. But in<br />
other areas, particularly in rocketry <strong>and</strong> the invention<br />
<strong>and</strong> perfection <strong>of</strong> the all-important guidance systems,<br />
Germany stood head <strong>and</strong> shoulders above the rest.<br />
Left: The Junkers Ju 287, with its forward-swept wings,<br />
was just one <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> futuristic designs developed<br />
by German scientists <strong>and</strong> engineers in <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>.
Her scientists made an enormous <strong>and</strong> outst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
contribution, not just to the German war effort, but to<br />
modern civilisation. However, there were areas where<br />
German science <strong>and</strong> technology were deficient, most<br />
importantly - arguably - in the field <strong>of</strong> electronic<br />
computing machines, which were not weapons themselves<br />
but something without which the bounds <strong>of</strong><br />
technological development would soon be reached.<br />
However, all too <strong>of</strong>ten these deficiencies arose as a<br />
result <strong>of</strong> dem<strong>and</strong> chasing insufficient resource, <strong>and</strong><br />
time simply ran out for the scientists <strong>of</strong> the Third<br />
Reich before a satisfactory result could be produced.<br />
TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE<br />
Time <strong>and</strong> again in the course <strong>of</strong> this work we will<br />
come upon development programmes which were<br />
either cancelled before they came to fruition or which<br />
were still in progress at the war's end. Many <strong>of</strong> them,<br />
<strong>of</strong> course, did not get under way until 1944, when the<br />
spectre <strong>of</strong> defeat was already looming large in Berlin<br />
<strong>and</strong> many essential items were in increasingly short<br />
supply. We can only speculate upon the possible outcome<br />
<strong>of</strong> an earlier start on the course <strong>of</strong> the conflict.<br />
Others were cancelled simply because they did not<br />
appear to <strong>of</strong>fer the likelihood <strong>of</strong> spectacular results,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in those cases we can, all too <strong>of</strong>ten, detect the<br />
h<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Adolf Hitler. In general, we can note what can<br />
only be described as a wrong-headed insistence on his<br />
part that big (<strong>and</strong> powerful) was always beautiful (<strong>and</strong><br />
irresistible). This major flaw led him to push for the<br />
development <strong>of</strong> weapons such as the fearsome - but<br />
only marginally effective <strong>and</strong> very expensive -<br />
PzKpfw VI Tiger <strong>and</strong> King Tiger tanks, which would<br />
have been far better consigned to the wastebin from<br />
Above: A borderline secret weapon: the 'Goliath' was an<br />
explosives-filled wire-guided tank <strong>and</strong> a typically<br />
innovative approach to dealing with bunkers <strong>and</strong> armour.<br />
the very outset, <strong>and</strong> the resources squ<strong>and</strong>ered upon<br />
producing them - <strong>and</strong> then keeping them in service -<br />
redirected into more appropriate channels such as the<br />
more practical PzKpfw V Panther.<br />
In a very real sense, Hitler himself motivated <strong>and</strong><br />
ran the German secret weapons programme. There<br />
seems to be a direct <strong>and</strong> very tangible link between<br />
this programme <strong>and</strong> his psyche, <strong>and</strong> we are perhaps<br />
left wondering whether the Wunderwaffen would have<br />
existed without him. On balance, it seems certain that<br />
they would have done, given the creative imagination<br />
<strong>of</strong> so many German scientists <strong>and</strong> the readiness <strong>of</strong><br />
many <strong>of</strong> her military men to accept innovation, but it<br />
is equally certain that without Hitler's insistence,<br />
many weapons systems which made a very real<br />
impact upon the course <strong>of</strong> the war would either not<br />
have been developed at all, or would, at best, have<br />
been less prominent.<br />
Nonetheless, without the genius <strong>of</strong> many German<br />
scientists <strong>and</strong> the brilliance <strong>of</strong> German technologists<br />
<strong>and</strong> engineers, the entire programme would have been<br />
stillborn. Many <strong>of</strong> the weapons produced for the first<br />
time in Germany <strong>and</strong> employed in <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> went<br />
on to become accepted <strong>and</strong> very important parts <strong>of</strong> the<br />
broader armoury, <strong>and</strong> several have made an enormous<br />
impact on life as a whole outside the military arena.<br />
The more spectacular failures have a certain gr<strong>and</strong>eur,<br />
despite <strong>their</strong> shortcomings, <strong>and</strong> even the outright<br />
myths - <strong>and</strong> there were many, some remarkably persistent<br />
- frequently had an underpinning <strong>of</strong> fact.
CHAPTER ONE<br />
Jet <strong>Aircraft</strong><br />
Thrust-powered flight was an early alternative to the airscrew propeller - in 1928,<br />
only a quarter century after the Wright brothers first took to the air, Fritz Stammer<br />
flew in a rocket-powered glider. By the time a further decade had gone by, both<br />
rocket- <strong>and</strong> jet-powered aircraft had become a reality, <strong>and</strong> a central plank in<br />
Germany's attempts to win control in the air.<br />
The German Air Force, the Luftwaffe, was held in<br />
high esteem in National Socialist Party (henceforth,<br />
Nazi) circles, <strong>and</strong> it perhaps enjoyed better<br />
access to the ultimate seat <strong>of</strong> power, namely Adolf<br />
Hitler, than the Army or the Navy. This was not just<br />
because it had at its head one <strong>of</strong> the Fuhrer's closest<br />
associates, Hermann Goring, but also because for<br />
almost all <strong>of</strong> the war, it had sole charge <strong>of</strong> the frontline<br />
defence <strong>of</strong> Germany against the combined<br />
onslaughts <strong>of</strong> the British <strong>and</strong> American air forces,<br />
bombing by night <strong>and</strong> by day.<br />
Certainly, when it came to the allocation <strong>of</strong> funds<br />
for research <strong>and</strong> development, the Luftwaffe was at<br />
the head <strong>of</strong> the line; as a result, more developments<br />
Above: The stark shape <strong>of</strong> the Messerschmitt Me 262.<br />
Left: The Heinkel He 162 made use <strong>of</strong> appropriate<br />
technology- in this case, plywood; its wing <strong>and</strong> tailplane<br />
assemblies were manufactured in furniture factories.<br />
were made in the field <strong>of</strong> aeronautics in the Third<br />
Reich than in any other. That there was something<br />
approaching chaos in the way individual projects<br />
were initiated, approved <strong>and</strong> evaluated is a constant<br />
source <strong>of</strong> wonder, because in a country which prided<br />
itself on its logical, methodical approach to problemsolving,<br />
there was no logic or method in evidence! As<br />
one expert has commented, the relationship between<br />
the individual aircraft <strong>and</strong> engine manufacturers <strong>and</strong><br />
also between them <strong>and</strong> the Luftwaffe <strong>and</strong> the Reichsluftfahrtministerium<br />
(RLM - the German Air Ministry)<br />
looked like tribal warfare.<br />
Those projects which came to fruition were<br />
amongst the better-known wartime developments,<br />
<strong>and</strong> not just in Germany, but that only tells half, or far<br />
less than half, the story. The vast majority fell by the<br />
wayside, some due to lack <strong>of</strong> time; others, quite properly,<br />
because they were flawed; still others because<br />
they were simply too fanciful <strong>and</strong> apparently farfetched.<br />
Most <strong>of</strong> the more interesting new aircraft
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
developed during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> IT in Germany were to<br />
be powered by either turbojet or rocket motors, in<br />
both <strong>of</strong> which German scientists <strong>and</strong> engineers<br />
excelled, but as we shall see, the jet engine programme<br />
in particular was to get <strong>of</strong>f to a very slow<br />
start. Had the optimism <strong>of</strong> the jet pioneers been justified,<br />
we might well have seen a different outcome to<br />
the war, a prolongation, perhaps, into the autumn <strong>and</strong><br />
winter <strong>of</strong> 1945, which might have resulted in the<br />
nuclear bombs used against Japan being dropped on<br />
German cities, too. When it was so evident that the jet<br />
aircraft was going to be so vitally important, it comes<br />
as something <strong>of</strong> a surprise to see that the timescale <strong>of</strong><br />
its development was so extended. As a result,<br />
although Germany had a very clear lead in the field,<br />
she squ<strong>and</strong>ered it, thanks largely to poor overall control<br />
<strong>of</strong> the research <strong>and</strong> development programme.<br />
THEHEINKELHe178<br />
The name Heinkel deserves to figure high in any list<br />
<strong>of</strong> notable achievements in aviation, for it was from<br />
Ernst Heinkel's design studio, <strong>and</strong> specifically from<br />
the drawing boards <strong>of</strong> twin brothers Siegfried <strong>and</strong><br />
Walter Günter, that the first practical thrust-powered<br />
aircraft - the rocket-propelled He 176 <strong>and</strong> the turbojet-powered<br />
He 178 - were to come. Heinkel himself,<br />
with partner Hellmuth Hirth, had enjoyed considerable<br />
success with the Albatros aircraft, especially the<br />
B.I, during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I. He struggled through the<br />
dark days <strong>of</strong> the 1920s <strong>and</strong> came to prominence again<br />
with a commercial aircraft, the Giinter-designed He<br />
70 <strong>and</strong>, using that as a stepping-stone, produced<br />
arguably the most effective bomber <strong>of</strong> its day, the He<br />
111, which first flew in early 1935. Heinkel continued<br />
to develop successful piston-engined aircraft, but his<br />
10<br />
HEINKEL He 178<br />
Type: Single-seat research aircraft<br />
Length: 7.51 m (24.54ft)<br />
Wing area: 7.90rri2 (85.04sq ft))<br />
Max weight: 1990kg (4387lb)<br />
interest also turned to the emerging technology <strong>of</strong><br />
rocketry. There had been thrust-powered flights -<br />
Fritz Stammer flew a solid-fuel rocket-powered glider<br />
for the first time on 11 June 1928 - but it took<br />
almost a further decade <strong>and</strong> the development <strong>of</strong> liquid-fuelled<br />
motors to make it a practical proposition,<br />
as we shall discover in Chapter Two when we come to<br />
examine rocket-propelled aircraft.<br />
Rocket motors, while they could hardly be called<br />
'tried <strong>and</strong> tested' by 1938, were simple in the<br />
extreme; far more complicated, but <strong>of</strong>fering huge<br />
advantages in terms <strong>of</strong> fuel economy <strong>and</strong> controllability,<br />
was the revolutionary new turbojet powerplant<br />
on which Heinkel's engineer, Joachim Pabst von<br />
Ohain, <strong>and</strong> his assistant Max Hahn, were working in<br />
secret. Lured away from Göttingen University, where<br />
they had done <strong>their</strong> pioneering work, the pair produced<br />
a first demonstration prototype, the HeS 1,<br />
which ran only on hydrogen (<strong>and</strong> was only barely<br />
controllable) to produce about 250kg (55()lb) <strong>of</strong> static<br />
thrust, in September 1937. By the time six more<br />
months had passed, they had made considerable<br />
progress, <strong>and</strong> had produced the petrol-fuelled HeS 3,<br />
which developed 500kg (HOOlb) <strong>of</strong> thrust. This, they<br />
believed, was a practical - if only marginally - powerplant,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the next step was to produce an airframe<br />
in which to mount it.<br />
The result <strong>of</strong> <strong>their</strong> efforts was the He 178, the<br />
world's first jet-propelled aircraft. It was a shoulderwing<br />
monoplane with its cockpit well forward <strong>of</strong> the<br />
wing leading edge, where it sat above the ducting<br />
Below: The Heinkel He 178, despite its shortcomings, was<br />
the first jet-powered aircraft to fly successfully, on 27<br />
August 1939, 20 months before Britain's Gloster E.28/39.<br />
Max speed: estimated 580km/h (360mph)<br />
at sea level<br />
Range: N/A<br />
Armament: None
HEINKEL He 280<br />
Type: Single-seat prototype interceptor<br />
Length: 10.40m (34.125ft)<br />
Span: 12.20m (40.00ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 4310kg (9502lb)<br />
Max speed: 900km/h (560mph} at 6000m<br />
(19,700ft)<br />
which brought air to the engine (which, along with its<br />
tailpipe, occupied most <strong>of</strong> the rest <strong>of</strong> the fuselage). It<br />
made its first true flight on 27 August 1939, having<br />
'hopped' along the runway three days earlier. This<br />
pre-dated the maiden flight <strong>of</strong> the Gloster E.28/39,<br />
powered by Frank Whittle's engine, which had in its<br />
turn pre-dated Chain's original effort, by over 20<br />
months. The He 178 was demonstrated to the RLM on<br />
1 November. Almost incredibly, there was virtually<br />
no <strong>of</strong>ficial interest, <strong>and</strong> it (along with the He 176) was<br />
consigned to the Berlin Air Museum, where both<br />
were destroyed in an air raid in 1943.<br />
THE HEINKEL He 280<br />
Heinkel ab<strong>and</strong>oned the He 178 largely because <strong>of</strong><br />
technical problems associated with mounting the<br />
engine within the fuselage, but did not give up hope<br />
<strong>of</strong> developing a turbojet-powered fighter. New blood<br />
in the shape <strong>of</strong> Max Mueller arrived from Jumo to pep<br />
up the jet engine development programme. He<br />
worked on the the HeS 30, which became the 109-<br />
006. The 109- prefix was employed, somewhat confusingly,<br />
for both pulse-jet <strong>and</strong> turbojet engines <strong>and</strong><br />
also for rocket motors; the three-figure designator following<br />
was allocated chronologically, <strong>and</strong> there is no<br />
logical distinction between one manufacturer <strong>and</strong><br />
another. Thankfully, there were few enough engine<br />
types, so one soon became familiar with the rather<br />
impersonal system.<br />
Simultaneous with Mueller's work was that <strong>of</strong><br />
Pabst von Ohain who developed the HeS 3 as the HeS<br />
8 (109-001). Both engines were to be tested in an allnew<br />
airframe, the He 280. This was a twin-engined<br />
aircraft, its powerplants slung beneath the low wings<br />
in nacelles <strong>and</strong> with a high tailplane with a fin <strong>and</strong><br />
Range: 650km (404 miles)<br />
Armament: 3 x 20mm MG 151 cannon<br />
Above: The second Heinkel jet, the He 280, was<br />
successful, but lost out in competition with the<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
M esse rsc h mitt Me 262. Just nine examples were built<br />
rudder at each tip. It made its first powered flight with<br />
von Ohain's engines on 2 April 1941, <strong>and</strong> was demonstrated<br />
to the Luftwaffe <strong>and</strong> RLM three days later.<br />
Now the reaction was different. The immediate<br />
result was that Heinkel's engine division exp<strong>and</strong>ed in<br />
size with the addition <strong>of</strong> his old partner Hirth's company<br />
(which made piston engines <strong>and</strong> turbo-chargers<br />
amongst other things). Mueller <strong>and</strong> his team moved to<br />
the Hirth factory at Stuttgart, <strong>and</strong> von Ohain stayed at<br />
Rostock-Marienehe to work on a further development<br />
<strong>of</strong> his engine, the 109-011, which was projected to<br />
give 1300kg (28661b) <strong>of</strong> static thrust. There was<br />
underst<strong>and</strong>able rivalry between the two teams <strong>and</strong><br />
both made considerable progress, but for some unaccountable<br />
reason, the RLM decided to order work on<br />
the 109-006 to be discontinued, even though it was<br />
already producing 900kg (19841b) <strong>of</strong> thrust. Meanwhile,<br />
development <strong>of</strong> the Oil continued at Stuttgart,<br />
but even by the end <strong>of</strong> the war, it had never run except<br />
on a test bench <strong>and</strong> just 20 had been completed. Testing<br />
<strong>of</strong> the He 280 continued with both Jumo 004 <strong>and</strong><br />
BMW 003 engines, but when it eventually came up<br />
against the Me 262, it fared badly. There are suggestions<br />
that the decision to adopt the Me 262 was at<br />
least partly politically motivated, since, as we have<br />
noted, the relationship between the various German<br />
planemakers themselves, <strong>and</strong> with the RLM <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Luftwaffe, was a political minefield. The nine prototypes<br />
constructed were later used for testing new<br />
wing <strong>and</strong> tail designs <strong>and</strong> Heinkel later worked on<br />
other jet aircraft designs, most <strong>of</strong> them centred on the<br />
11
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
stillborn Oil engine, but none came to fruition until<br />
the submission which became the He 162 (qv) was<br />
accepted.<br />
THE Me 262 'SCHWALBE/STURMVOGEL<br />
The best known <strong>of</strong> the aviation projects which actually<br />
came to fruition is the Messerschmitt Me 262, the<br />
aircraft chosen over the He 280. By modern st<strong>and</strong>ards,<br />
this was a fairly conventional all-metal fighter<br />
aircraft with gently swept low-set variable-chord<br />
wings, powered by twin Junkers Jumo 004B-1 turbojet<br />
engines. It became the first jet-powered aircraft to<br />
enter operational service, on 3 October 1944, <strong>and</strong> was<br />
thus a l<strong>and</strong>mark in aviation history. We shall examine<br />
the development history <strong>of</strong> the Me 262 in more detail<br />
than other aircraft, both because it was so significant<br />
<strong>and</strong> because it will give us an insight into the methodology<br />
<strong>of</strong> aircraft development in the Third Reich,<br />
revealing that it was by no means a smooth process.<br />
The Me 262 started life as a loosely defined project<br />
<strong>of</strong> the RLM, inaugurated in 1938, with Hans Mauch<br />
<strong>and</strong> Helmut Schlep working on the powerplant <strong>and</strong><br />
Hans Antz on the airframe. Schlep, recently returned<br />
from college in the United States, had already convinced<br />
Junkers Motorenwerke (Jumo - the engine<br />
division <strong>of</strong> the forcibly nationalised planemaker) to<br />
start work on designs for axial-flow turbojets, <strong>and</strong><br />
BMW, initially sub-contracted by Junkers, had also<br />
begun to develop a more sophisticated design <strong>of</strong> its<br />
own. In the meantime, Antz had interested Messerschmitt's<br />
chief <strong>of</strong> development, Robert Lusser, in<br />
examining the possibilities <strong>of</strong> producing an airframe<br />
to carry such a powerplant. Before the end <strong>of</strong> the year,<br />
the project had moved up a gear, <strong>and</strong> Messerschmitt<br />
1 2<br />
Above: A pre-production version <strong>of</strong> the Me 262 gets<br />
airborne with the help <strong>of</strong> solid-fuel rocket motors. Such<br />
'RATO' (Rocket-Assisted Take-Off) units were widely used<br />
to assist heavily loaded aircraft into the air.<br />
Below: In all, some 1430 Me 262s were to be produced in<br />
seven different variants. This bomber variant, the Me<br />
262A-2a 'Sturmvogel', was operated by KG 51 out <strong>of</strong><br />
Prague-Ruzyn in late 1944.<br />
MESSERSCHMITT Me 262A-2a/Ul<br />
Type: Single-seat bomber<br />
Length: 10.61 m (34.79ft)<br />
Span: 12.50m (41.01ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 6775kg (14,936lb)<br />
Max speed: 870km/h (541 mph) at 7000m (23,000ft)<br />
Range: 845km (525 miles)<br />
Armament: 2 x 30mm MK 108 cannon;<br />
1000kg (2200lb)bombload
was instructed, somewhat baldly, to begin development<br />
work on a fighter aircraft which was to have an<br />
endurance <strong>of</strong> one hour at 850km/h (530mph).<br />
Responsibility was placed in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Woldemar<br />
Voigt (<strong>of</strong> whom more later), who examined both single-<br />
<strong>and</strong> twin-engined arrangements before concluding<br />
that a single centrally mounted engine layout<br />
would present more problems than it would solve. His<br />
view was coloured by the performance <strong>of</strong> the He 178.<br />
Instead Voigt suggested a design with engines in each<br />
wing root, which crystallised into Project 1065 in<br />
Messerschmitt's Augsburg design <strong>of</strong>fice. Detailed<br />
design drawings were produced as early as 7 June<br />
1939, <strong>and</strong> a wooden mock-up then made. On 3 March<br />
1940 Messerschmitt was awarded a contract to produce<br />
three airframes, designated as the Me 262, for<br />
flight testing.<br />
It was envisioned that the aircraft's power would<br />
come from two BMW P.3302 engines, delivery <strong>of</strong><br />
which had been promised for the end <strong>of</strong> 1939, <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>their</strong> non-appearance was only the first <strong>of</strong> a long<br />
series <strong>of</strong> setbacks associated with the powerplant. In<br />
fact, the prototype BMW engine, now known as the<br />
109-003, did not run until August 1940, <strong>and</strong> then it<br />
produced only 150kg (3301b) <strong>of</strong> static thrust instead<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 600kg (13201b) promised. A year later it was<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
still only producing 450kg (9901b), which was by no<br />
means enough to get the Me 262 into the air. It was to<br />
be mid-1943 before an 003 engine produced sufficient<br />
power to be viable, <strong>and</strong> a further year before production<br />
units became available, <strong>and</strong> in due course it was<br />
decided to reserve it for the Heinkel He 162 (see<br />
below). In addition, the BMW engine had proven too<br />
big to fit into the wing-root mount, <strong>and</strong> the design<br />
team had hurriedly modified the Me 262 to carry it in<br />
under-wing nacelles, though this, in turn, simplified<br />
main spar design. Some sources suggest that this factor,<br />
not the diameter <strong>of</strong> the BMW engines, underlay<br />
the decision to adopt nacelles rather than faired-in<br />
mountings, even at the expense <strong>of</strong> increased drag.<br />
FIRST ALL-JET Me 262 FLIGHT<br />
The Jumo 109-004 was always to have been a less<br />
sophisticated design, sacrificing ultimate potential for<br />
a 'fast track' into production. It, too, had its problems,<br />
however. The prototype ran in November 1940, but it<br />
was January 1942 before all the snags were ironed<br />
out, <strong>and</strong> its first flight, slung under a Messerschmitt<br />
Bf 110, took place on 15 March. The first pilot-production<br />
engines, 004As, which produced 840kg<br />
(185()lb) <strong>of</strong> static thrust, were rolled out in early summer,<br />
<strong>and</strong> were fitted to the Me 262 V3, which made
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
the first all-jet Me 262 flight on 18 July 1942 in the<br />
h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Fritz Wendel. The aircraft had flown as early<br />
as 18 April 1941, but with a single 1200bhp Jumo<br />
210G piston engine in its nose, <strong>and</strong> by that time an<br />
aircraft which was ultimately to be its closest competitor,<br />
the Heinkel He 280 (qv), had already flown on<br />
the power <strong>of</strong> two 500kg- (HOOlb-) thrust HeS 8 turbojcts.<br />
Orders for 15 Me 262s were placed, exp<strong>and</strong>ed<br />
to 60 by early October, by which time the second prototype<br />
had also flown, <strong>and</strong> the first Jumo 004B<br />
engines, with similar performance characteristics to<br />
the -As, were going into production.<br />
PROPELLED BY AN ANGEL<br />
On 22 April 1943, Adolf Gall<strong>and</strong>, the operational<br />
head <strong>of</strong> the Luftwaffe, flew the aircraft himself (<strong>and</strong><br />
returned to say it felt 'as if an angel were pushing<br />
me'), <strong>and</strong> was instrumental in convincing the RLM to<br />
switch most <strong>of</strong> Messerschmitt's production from the<br />
Bf 109 to the Me 262, the formal order for general<br />
production being issued on 5 June. On 26 June the<br />
production prototype, -V5, with a nosewheel undercarriage,<br />
took to the air. A blow fell on 17 August<br />
1943: production <strong>of</strong> the Me 262 was just getting into<br />
Below: The two-seater Me 262B-1 was normally<br />
employed as a night-fighter, but these aircraft lacked the<br />
distinctive 'toasting-fork' antenna on the nose, which,<br />
incidentally, slowed the night-fighter down.<br />
14<br />
full swing when the USAAF bombed the Messerschmitt<br />
factory at Regensburg, destroying much<br />
important tooling. The company's development programmes<br />
were transferred from Augsburg to Oberammergau<br />
as a result, with further attendant delays. By<br />
November, the future looked less bleak, with prototypes<br />
flying with pressurised cockpits <strong>and</strong> carrying<br />
armament (the as yet imperfect MG 108 30mm cannon)<br />
<strong>and</strong> with Junkers finally getting the 004B engine<br />
into series production, but then another quite different<br />
problem arose in the shape <strong>of</strong> direct interference from<br />
the Führer himself.<br />
Senior Luftwaffe personnel, aware that they were<br />
losing the fight to limit the success <strong>of</strong> the RAF <strong>and</strong><br />
USAAF bombing campaign, had begun to advocate<br />
that the production <strong>of</strong> bomber aircraft in the Third<br />
Reich should cease <strong>and</strong> that all efforts should concentrate<br />
on fighter types. Goring agreed, but Hitler<br />
recoiled at the very suggestion <strong>and</strong> would have none<br />
<strong>of</strong> it. Instead, he decided that the Me 262 would be<br />
perfect to carry a 500kg (11 OOlb) bombload to Engl<strong>and</strong><br />
to continue his pet campaign <strong>of</strong> harassment <strong>and</strong><br />
nuisance raids, <strong>and</strong> he ordered the aircraft to be modified<br />
<strong>and</strong> developed for this purpose alone, even<br />
though it was hardly suitable <strong>and</strong> no adequate bombsight<br />
was available, nor was one ever produced.<br />
It was May 1944 before Hitler agreed to allow production<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 'Schwalbe' ('Swallow') fighter version<br />
to continue, <strong>and</strong> then only in parallel with the
Above: This Me 262A, 'White 10' (the distinctive markings<br />
are largely obscured), was flown by Leutnant Kurt Bell <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>II</strong>I/EJG 2 during the making <strong>of</strong> a Luftwaffe training film.<br />
Note the aircraft's pristine appearance.<br />
'Sturmvogel' ('Storm Petrel') bomber, at the rate <strong>of</strong><br />
one fighter to 20 bombers. Furthermore it was 4<br />
November before he gave permission for it to go into<br />
unlimited production. By then, 13 pre-production Me<br />
262A-Os had been completed, in addition to 12 development<br />
prototypes, <strong>and</strong> 60 more were scheduled to<br />
roll out during the following month. There was still<br />
much 'fine tuning' to be done, <strong>and</strong> versions <strong>of</strong> the aircraft,<br />
both bombers <strong>and</strong> fighters, were testing in a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> forms, but more importantly, pilot training<br />
had begun. It was still to be five months before the Me<br />
262 was ready to go to war, but essentially by mid-<br />
1944 the development emphasis had switched from<br />
Messerschmitt to the Luftwaffe, although the firm<br />
was still heavily involved, developing the two-seater<br />
trainer <strong>and</strong> night-fighter versions, as well as alternative<br />
forms for the stillborn hochgeschwindigkeits (HG<br />
- high speed) version.<br />
MESSERSCHMITT Me 262B-la/Ul<br />
Type: Two-seat night-fighter<br />
Length: 11.53m (37.83ft)<br />
Span: 12.48m (40.96ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 6585kg (14,515lb)<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
In the final analysis, the Me 262 was simply too little,<br />
too late. The German jet scored its first confirmed<br />
combat victory in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Leutnant Joachim<br />
Weber - his victim was a PR XVI Mosquito <strong>of</strong> No.<br />
540 Squadron, RAF - on 8 August 1944, four days<br />
after the British Gloster 'Meteor' Mk 1 had made its<br />
combat debut (though admittedly, the latter's debut<br />
'victory' had been over a pilotless VI (lying bomb).<br />
That bare statistic is a telling indictment, for the<br />
British had not flown <strong>their</strong> prototype jet aircraft, the<br />
E.28/39, until almost 21 months after Heinkel's He<br />
178 had taken to the air.<br />
Me 262 VICTORIES<br />
Some 1430 Me 262s were to be produced, in seven<br />
main versions, but probably no more than a third <strong>of</strong><br />
them actually saw combat (<strong>and</strong> over 100 were lost,<br />
many in accidents on l<strong>and</strong>ing) over a seven-month<br />
period. By the spring <strong>of</strong> 1945 they were operating<br />
under very difficult circumstances but were still<br />
downing American bombers in significant numbers,<br />
particularly when equipped with 5.5cm R4M 'Orkan'<br />
('Hurricane') unguided rocket projectiles, despite a<br />
never-cured tendency to snake at high speed, which<br />
made aiming somewhat unpredictable. The total number<br />
<strong>of</strong> victories scored by Me 262s is uncertain, but is<br />
authoritatively put at more than 735. The highestscoring<br />
pilot was Oberleutnant Kurt Welter, with over<br />
20 victories, <strong>and</strong> 27 other Luftwaffe pilots became jet<br />
aces, with five or more victories each, including<br />
Below: The Me 262B-1 night-fighters <strong>of</strong> 10/NJG 11 were<br />
assigned to the defence <strong>of</strong> Berlin. One <strong>of</strong> the unit's pilots,<br />
Feldwebel Karl-Heinz Becker, accounted for seven Allied<br />
aircraft. Note the radar array on the nose.<br />
Max speed: 813km/h (505mph) at 6000m<br />
(19,700ft)<br />
Range: 1050km (652 miles)<br />
Armament: 4 x MK 108 30mm cannon<br />
15
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Messerschmitt Me 262A-1a<br />
cutaway drawing key<br />
1. Flettner-type geared trim tab<br />
2. Mass-balanced rudder<br />
3. Rudder post<br />
4. Tail fin structure<br />
5. Tailplane structure<br />
6. Rudder tab mechanism<br />
7. Flettner-type servo tab<br />
8. Starboard elevator<br />
9. Rear navigation light<br />
10. Rudder linkage<br />
11. Elevator linkage<br />
12. Tailplane adjustment<br />
mechanism<br />
13. Fuselage break point<br />
14. Fuselage construction<br />
15. Control runs<br />
16. FuG 25a loop antenna (IFF)<br />
17. Automatic compass<br />
18. Aft auxiliary self-sealing fuel<br />
tank (600 litres; 132 gallons)<br />
19. FuG16zyR/T<br />
20. Fuel filler cap<br />
21. Aft cockpit glazing<br />
22. Armoured aft main fuel tank<br />
(900 litres; 198 gallons)<br />
23. Inner cockpit shell<br />
24. Pilot's seat<br />
25. Canopy jettison lever<br />
26. Armoured (15mm; 0.6in]<br />
head rest<br />
Generalleutnant Adolf Gall<strong>and</strong>, who formed <strong>and</strong> then<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>ed the ad hoc unit known as 'Jagdverb<strong>and</strong><br />
T after being implicated in the January 1945 'revolt'<br />
<strong>of</strong> Luftwaffe fighter unit leaders.<br />
Was the Messerschmitt Me 262 worth the time <strong>and</strong><br />
effort it took to develop, when all was said <strong>and</strong> done?<br />
The answer is a qualified 'yes', but the situation, most<br />
16<br />
27. Canopy (hinged to starboard)<br />
28. Canopy lock<br />
29. Bar-mounted Revi 16B sight<br />
(for both cannon <strong>and</strong> R4M<br />
rockets)<br />
30. Armourglass windscreen<br />
(90mm)<br />
- 31. Instrument panel<br />
32. Rudder pedal<br />
33. Armoured forward main fuel<br />
tank (900 litres; 198 gallons)<br />
34. Fuel filler cap<br />
35. Underwing wooden rack<br />
for 12 R4M 5.5cm<br />
rockets<br />
36. Port outer flap section<br />
37. Frise-type aileron<br />
38. Aileron control linkage<br />
39. Port navigation light<br />
40. Pitothead<br />
41. Automatic leading-edge slats<br />
42. Port engine cowling<br />
43. Electrical firing mechanism<br />
44. Firewall<br />
45. Spent cartridge ejector chutes<br />
46. Four 30mm Rheinmetall-Borsig<br />
MK 108 cannon (100 rpg beltfed<br />
ammunition for upper pair<br />
<strong>and</strong> 80 rpg for lower pair)<br />
47. Cannon muzzles<br />
48. Combat camera<br />
49. Camera aperture<br />
50. Nosewheel fairing<br />
51. Nosewheel leg<br />
52. Nosewheel<br />
53. Torque scissors<br />
54. Retraction jack<br />
55. Hydraulic lines<br />
56. Main nosewheel door (star-<br />
board)<br />
57. Compressed air bottles<br />
58. Forward auxiliary fuel tank (170<br />
litres; 37 gallons)<br />
59. Mainwheel well<br />
60. Torque box<br />
61. Main spar<br />
62. Mainwheel leg pivot point<br />
experts agree, would have been very different had the<br />
two major hold-ups - the late delivery <strong>of</strong> the engines<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Fuhrer's meddling - been somehow speedily<br />
dealt with. Had the Luftwaffe's fighter squadrons<br />
been able to operate it in significant numbers from,<br />
let's say, mid-1944, the outcome would probably have<br />
been very different. Tt would not have won the war for
63. Mainwheel door<br />
64. Mainwheel retraction rod<br />
65. Engine support arch<br />
66. Leading-edge slat structure<br />
67. Auxiliaries gearbox<br />
68. Annular oil tank<br />
69. Riedel starter motor housing<br />
70. Engine air intake<br />
71. Hinged cowling section<br />
72. Junkers Jumo 004B-2 axial-flow<br />
turbojet<br />
73. Starboard mainwheel<br />
74. Wing structure<br />
75. Automatic leading-edge slats<br />
76. Main spar<br />
77. Starboard navigation light<br />
78. Frise-type ailerons<br />
79. Trim tab<br />
80. Flettner-type geared tab<br />
81. Starboard outer flap section<br />
82. Engine exhaust orifice<br />
83. Engine support bearer<br />
84. Starboard inner flap structure<br />
85. Faired wing root<br />
Germany, but it might well have prolonged it by some<br />
months by making inroads into the Allies' (especially<br />
the Americans') strategic bombing campaign, thus<br />
helping to maintain German manufacturing production<br />
levels. The question <strong>of</strong> whether that would have<br />
been a good or a bad thing lies outside the scope <strong>of</strong><br />
this work.<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Left: Despite its revolutionary wing form, the Me 262 was<br />
constructed along entirely conventional lines, the only<br />
limiting factor <strong>of</strong> the powerplant being the need to keep<br />
the airframe components out <strong>of</strong> the exhaust stream.<br />
THE Ar 234 'BLITZ'<br />
The only other jet-propelled German aircraft to see<br />
serious combat during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> came not from<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the major manufacturers, but from a relatively<br />
minor player. Prior to the development <strong>of</strong> the Ar 234<br />
'Blitz' ('Lightning') bomber (also known as the<br />
'Hecht' - 'Pike'), the Arado company had only ever<br />
been involved in the production <strong>of</strong> light aircraft.<br />
Many <strong>of</strong> them, such as the Ar 196, were produced as<br />
floatplanes, designed to operate from warships,<br />
though that is not to say that its products were anything<br />
less than excellent. In 1940, the RLM issued a<br />
specification for a high-speed reconnaissance aircraft<br />
to be powered by two jet engines, either Jumo 004s or<br />
BMW 003s. Arado responded with a design - the<br />
E.370 - for a shoulder-wing monoplane with engines<br />
in under-slung nacelles, which was accepted as the Ar<br />
234. Two prototypes were constructed over the winter<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1941-42, but it was February 1943 before the first<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> engines, the Jumo 004Bs, were delivered, <strong>and</strong><br />
15 June before the aircraft first flew. It was entirely<br />
conventional for the period, save in one respect: the<br />
fuselage was very slim <strong>and</strong> instead <strong>of</strong> a wheeled<br />
undercarriage, it used a take-<strong>of</strong>f trolley <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong>ed on<br />
skids. This was clearly unacceptable in an operational<br />
aircraft since it made manoeuvring on the ground next<br />
to impossible, so midway through the prototype programme,<br />
the fuselage was marginally widened<br />
beneath the wings, <strong>and</strong> main wheels <strong>and</strong> a retractable<br />
nosewheel were installed. Arado engineers also developed<br />
a rocket-powered interceptor, the E.381, which<br />
was to have been carried as a parasite beneath the<br />
fuselage <strong>of</strong> the Ar 234. Nothing came <strong>of</strong> the idea.<br />
Most <strong>of</strong> the early Ar 234s were completed as<br />
reconnaissance aircraft, <strong>and</strong> flew many successful<br />
missions at 700km/h (435mph) at between 9000m<br />
(29,530ft) <strong>and</strong> 12,000m (41,000ft), where they were<br />
largely immune to attack, but a bomber version with<br />
either one or two seats, <strong>and</strong> able to carry 2000kg<br />
(4400lb) <strong>of</strong> bombs, was also produced. It was February<br />
1945 before the first <strong>of</strong> these aircraft, assigned to<br />
KG 76, were operational. One was shot down by<br />
American P-47 Thunderbolts near Segelsdorf on 24<br />
February, <strong>and</strong> fell into Allied h<strong>and</strong>s. The most important<br />
missions KG 76 undertook were those aimed at<br />
the destruction <strong>of</strong> the Ludendorff Bridge over the
JET AIRCRAFT
Rhine at Remagen between 7 <strong>and</strong> 17 March, when Ar<br />
234s made repeated <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong>ten suicidal attacks supported<br />
by Me 262 bombers <strong>of</strong> KG 51. A night-fighter<br />
version <strong>of</strong> the Ar 234 was produced in small numbers,<br />
<strong>and</strong> operated from March 1945 with some success.<br />
Later Ar 234 variants had a variety <strong>of</strong> different powerplants,<br />
<strong>and</strong> a four-engined version using 'siamesed'<br />
nacelles was also produced in prototype. Maximum<br />
speed at medium level <strong>of</strong> the latter was over 850km/h<br />
(530mph), which was beyond the level-flight capabilities<br />
<strong>of</strong> any Allied fighter, but still by no means fast<br />
enough for absolute safety. The limiting factor on its<br />
performance was not, however, the engines: it was the<br />
design <strong>of</strong> the wing. Straight wings have a finite maximum<br />
speed, after which compression causes local<br />
airflow to exceed the speed <strong>of</strong> sound, resulting in<br />
potentially catastrophic instability. Arado's engineers<br />
discovered this the hard way, but soon designer<br />
Riidinger Kosin came up with an alternative planform:<br />
a crescent wing, starting out with its leading<br />
edge sweeping back from the wing roots, the curve<br />
returning so that the wingtip sections were at rightangles<br />
to the body axis (a form which was later used<br />
in the British H<strong>and</strong>ley-Page 'Victor' bomber). Wind<br />
tunnel tests showed this to be much more effective,<br />
but the war ended before a prototype could be constructed.<br />
And even while the Ar 234 was in development,<br />
engineers elsewhere were looking at much<br />
more advanced concepts.<br />
Left: The Arado Ar 234 - this is the production-B variant -<br />
with its long, slim fuselage <strong>and</strong> wings, was the only real<br />
alternative to the Me 262, but was nowhere near as<br />
successful in operational terms.<br />
ARADO Ar 234B-2<br />
Type: Single-seat tactical light bomber<br />
Length: 12.64m (41.46ft)<br />
Span: 14.44m (46.29ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 9800kg (21,605lb)<br />
THE JUNKERS Ju 287<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
There is no space here to go into the complex aerodynamics<br />
<strong>of</strong> wing form in any depth, save to say that as<br />
early as the mid-1930s, it had been accepted - following<br />
the work <strong>of</strong> the Deutsches Versuchsanstalt für<br />
Luftfahrt (DVL - the German Aviation Development<br />
Establishment) - that straight wings had a finite speed<br />
limit thanks to the rise in drag caused by air compressing<br />
at <strong>their</strong> leading edge. As we have seen, this<br />
was the main factor in limiting the speed <strong>of</strong> the Ar<br />
234. An interim solution was to sweep the leading<br />
edge backwards but keep the trailing edge straight,<br />
thus producing a variable-chord wing, <strong>and</strong> this was<br />
adopted with piston- <strong>and</strong> jet-engined aircraft alike.<br />
The Me 262 had a wing essentially <strong>of</strong> this form<br />
(although it did have a small sweep to its trailing edge<br />
outboard <strong>of</strong> the engines) as did the altogether more<br />
pedestrian Douglas C-47/DC-3 transport. At this<br />
time, no aircraft had flown with a wing that had<br />
steeply swept leading <strong>and</strong> trailing edges, even though<br />
it was known from wind tunnel testing that such a<br />
wing would benefit not only from decreased compressibility<br />
but also from a reduction in the ratio<br />
between its thickness <strong>and</strong> its chord (the distance<br />
between the leading <strong>and</strong> trailing edges).<br />
In June 1943, at about the time when the Arado Ar<br />
234 first flew, a development team at Junkers, under<br />
Dr Hans Wocke, produced a design for an advanced<br />
bomber using a double-swept wing form, but with one<br />
Below: A total <strong>of</strong> 210 examples <strong>of</strong> the Arado Ar 234B were<br />
produced; just one remains, on display in the Smithsonian<br />
Institution's National Air <strong>and</strong> Space Museum in<br />
Washington D.C.<br />
Max speed: 742km/h (461 mph) at 6000m<br />
(19,700ft)<br />
Range: 1630km (1013 miles)<br />
Armament: 2 x 20mm machine guns<br />
(some aircraft); 2000kg (4400lb)<br />
bombload
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: Surrounded by Junkers Ju 88Gs, this Ar 234B was<br />
captured by US forces at Manching in Bavaria in April<br />
1945. The state <strong>of</strong> its cockpit bears out the assertion that<br />
the full glazing <strong>of</strong>fered no protection against flying debris.<br />
further innovation. The wing was to be swept not<br />
back, but forward, conferring all the advantages outlined<br />
above but also resulting in greater stability,<br />
except under certain well-defined circumstances.<br />
Wocke's project was championed by Siegfried<br />
Kneymeyer who was already a leading advocate <strong>of</strong><br />
the ab<strong>and</strong>onment <strong>of</strong> all piston-engined aircraft manufacture<br />
(save for the Junkers Ju 88) in the Reich.<br />
A CHANGE AT THE TOP<br />
In November 1943, Kneymeyer took over from Ernst<br />
Udet as Chief <strong>of</strong> Technical Air Armament at the<br />
RLM, <strong>and</strong> thus had considerable influence. The following<br />
March, prototype development <strong>of</strong> Wocke's<br />
new aircraft, designated the Ju 287, was ordered, <strong>and</strong><br />
construction <strong>of</strong> a flying testbed began, using the fuselage<br />
<strong>of</strong> a Heinkel He 117. It was to be powered by
Above: The Ar 234B was found to be underpowered, <strong>and</strong><br />
the obvious solution was to double up on the powerplants<br />
to produce the Ar 234C. Both reconnaissance <strong>and</strong> nightfighter<br />
versions were built alongside the bomber variant.<br />
four 004B engines <strong>of</strong> 900kg (19841b) thrust each, two<br />
suspended from the wings, the other two mounted on<br />
the fuselage sides, just below <strong>and</strong> aft <strong>of</strong> the cockpit. It<br />
would have two Walter 501 rockets to assist take-<strong>of</strong>f.<br />
The prototype aircraft made its maiden flight on 16<br />
August <strong>and</strong> proved to be predictable in flight, though<br />
wing flexing was more <strong>of</strong> a problem than had been<br />
anticipated <strong>and</strong> when it yawed the trailing wing tend-<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
ed to lift <strong>and</strong> create a rolling moment. On the whole,<br />
however, results were positive, <strong>and</strong> work went ahead<br />
on the construction <strong>of</strong> a second prototype with a purpose-built<br />
fuselage, to be powered by six BMW 003<br />
turbojets, four wing-mounted <strong>and</strong> two mounted on the<br />
fuselage. In July, however, a new Führerdirectiv instigated<br />
the Reichsverteidigungs programme, which<br />
ordered all development work not concerned with<br />
Below: An early Ar 234 screeches down the runway as it<br />
l<strong>and</strong>s on its skids. Such a l<strong>and</strong>ing arrangement was out <strong>of</strong><br />
the question for operational purposes, so the fuselage<br />
was widened <strong>and</strong> main wheels <strong>and</strong> a nosewheel fitted.
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: The Junkers Ju 287, with its forward-swept wings<br />
<strong>and</strong> nose-mounted engines, was one <strong>of</strong> the more radical<br />
aircraft <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. This is the sole example built, the<br />
-V1 prototype. It was later captured by Soviet troops.<br />
fighters <strong>and</strong> interceptors to be stopped, <strong>and</strong> accordingly<br />
no further progress was made with the Ju 287<br />
V2, though the Ju 287 VI continued to fly occasional<br />
tests. Tn March 1945, the project was suddenly<br />
revived <strong>and</strong> the Ju 287 ordered into production. Construction<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Ju 287 V2 recommenced, <strong>and</strong> plans<br />
were made for a -V3, with a pressurised three-man<br />
cockpit, 4000kg (88001b) bombload, <strong>and</strong> remotely<br />
controlled guns, to be powered by four Heinkel Oil<br />
engines <strong>of</strong> 1300kg (28661b) thrust. Two Jumo 012<br />
engines <strong>of</strong> 2780kg (61201b) thrust or two BMW 018<br />
engines <strong>of</strong> 3400kg (74801b) thrust (neither <strong>of</strong> which<br />
had actually been completed) were posited as an alternative.<br />
Both the Ju 287 VI <strong>and</strong> the still-incomplete<br />
-V2 fell into Soviet h<strong>and</strong>s in May 1945; the former<br />
was flown as found, while the latter was completed<br />
with swept-back wings <strong>and</strong> is said to have achieved<br />
speeds <strong>of</strong> around 1000km/h (620mph). Hans Wocke<br />
later produced a civil aircraft, the HFB 320 'Hansa',<br />
with a swept-forward wing.<br />
THE He 162 'SPATZ'/'SALAMANDER'<br />
By 1944, with the situation looking increasingly<br />
black for Germany, there was a vocal school <strong>of</strong><br />
thought which advocated the development <strong>of</strong> almost<br />
disposable weapons, to be used, in the last resort, by<br />
barely trained personnel. Rather more practical was a<br />
design which Heinkel produced in response to an<br />
RLM requirement for the Volksjäger (People's Fighter),<br />
a cheap <strong>and</strong> expendable fighter aircraft weighing<br />
less than 2000kg (44001b), to be powered by a single<br />
BMW 003 jet engine, with an endurance <strong>of</strong> 30 minutes<br />
<strong>and</strong> an armament <strong>of</strong> two 30mm cannon. This<br />
craft was to be flown by volunteers from the Hitlerjugend.<br />
Design studies were 'invited' from Arado,
Blohm & Voss, Focke-Wulf, Junkers, Heinkel <strong>and</strong><br />
Messerschmitt on 8 September 1944, to be considered<br />
a week later; the prototype aircraft was to fly before<br />
the year's end.<br />
Only Messerschmitt declined the invitation. The<br />
Blohm & Voss design (P.211) was considered the<br />
best, but for some reason, the Heinkel submission<br />
(P. 1073) was chosen, placing the engine in a nacelle<br />
mounted atop the fuselage; the engine discharged its<br />
exhaust between twin rudders, <strong>and</strong> by that means<br />
avoided all the problems <strong>of</strong> intake <strong>and</strong> exhaust ducting.<br />
By 23 September, a mock-up had been built <strong>and</strong><br />
work began on the prototype the following day (six<br />
days before an <strong>of</strong>ficial order was delivered). By 29<br />
October a set <strong>of</strong> final drawings had been produced.<br />
Almost amazingly, the prototype flew for the first<br />
time on 6 December - three weeks before the deadline<br />
- but on a second flight on 10 December it<br />
crashed during a high-speed low-level pass, killing its<br />
pilot, Flugkapitän Peters, when the starboard wing<br />
disintegrated. It was later discovered that a fault in the<br />
formulation <strong>of</strong> the phenolic resin used to bond the<br />
plywood from which the wings were fabricated had<br />
caused the failure.<br />
By the year's end, a variety <strong>of</strong> faults in stability<br />
had shown up in the second prototype, though these<br />
were all cured by mid-January (even if only to the<br />
point where an experienced pilot could fly the aircraft;<br />
it was still very much <strong>of</strong> a h<strong>and</strong>ful for a novice,<br />
though the same was true <strong>of</strong> the Me 262). By the end<br />
<strong>of</strong> the month, weapons' testing had shown that it<br />
would be necessary to replace the 30mm MK 108<br />
with the 20mm MK 151. With that, the Heinkel 162<br />
'Spatz' ('Sparrow', as it was called within the firm; it<br />
HEINKEL He 162<br />
Type: Single-seat interceptor fighter<br />
Length: 9.05m (29.71ft)<br />
Span: 7.20m (23.625ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 2700kg (5952lb)<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: The Heinkel He 162, the 'People's Fighter', was to<br />
have been operated by barely trained volunteers from the<br />
ranks <strong>of</strong> the Hitler Youth, but it proved very difficult to fly.<br />
later became known semi-<strong>of</strong>ficially as the 'Salam<strong>and</strong>er')<br />
went into production at most <strong>of</strong> the existing<br />
Junkers <strong>and</strong> Heinkel factories (where the duralumin<br />
semi-monocoque fuselage was constructed) <strong>and</strong> in<br />
small furniture factories, where the wings <strong>and</strong> tail<br />
assemblies were produced. Final assembly took place<br />
at the Heinkel works at Rostock-Marienehe, at the<br />
Junkers works at Bernburg, <strong>and</strong> at the vast underground<br />
factory <strong>of</strong> 'Mittelwerke GmbH' near Nordhausen.<br />
Once again, it was too late, <strong>of</strong> course, though<br />
some 275 aircraft were actually completed <strong>and</strong><br />
around 800 more were ready for assembly. The Volksjäger<br />
rarely saw combat, though it was claimed that<br />
Below: The He 162A was straight winged, but designs<br />
were drawn up for a version with swept-back wings <strong>and</strong><br />
another with forward-swept wings. Neither was built.<br />
Max speed: 835km/h (519mph) at 6000m (19,700ft)<br />
Range: 1000km (620 miles)<br />
Armament: 2 x 30mm M K 108 or<br />
2 x 20mm MG 151 cannon
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
one aircraft - in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Leutnant Rudolf Schmitt<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1/JG 1 based at Leek near the Danish border in<br />
Schleswig-Holstein - did shoot down a low-flying<br />
RAF Typhoon on 4 May 1945 (the claim was not<br />
allowed; the credit went to a nearby flak unit instead)<br />
<strong>and</strong> one was shot down, killing the pilot. Nine other<br />
members <strong>of</strong> JG 1 died <strong>and</strong> five were injured in flying<br />
accidents during conversion from the Fw 190; the He<br />
162 was still very unforgiving. Post-war evaluation by<br />
Allied air forces indicated that with a little more<br />
development work, it would have been entirely<br />
viable, however, <strong>and</strong> would almost certainly have<br />
made a considerable impact, if only it had been available<br />
12 - or even 6 - months earlier.<br />
THE EMERGENCY FIGHTER PROGRAMME<br />
Expedients like the Volksjäger were not the only<br />
option under consideration in mid-1944. It was<br />
becoming increasingly obvious to the Luftwaffe's<br />
Below: He 162 components were manufactured all over<br />
Germany <strong>and</strong> sent to three central locations for assembly.<br />
In all, some 275 aircraft were completed, <strong>and</strong> components<br />
for around 800 more were on h<strong>and</strong> at the war's end.
High Comm<strong>and</strong> that it had effectively missed the<br />
boat, <strong>and</strong> that the jet <strong>and</strong> rocket-powered fighters<br />
which were about to enter service would soon be ineffective<br />
against a new generation <strong>of</strong> Allied aircraft<br />
such as the B-29 Superfortress with its 11,000m<br />
(36000ft) plus ceiling. Just before the end <strong>of</strong> the year,<br />
Kneymeyer issued a specification for a new generation<br />
fighter to all the principal producers, with the<br />
stipulation that the aircraft should be powered by the<br />
HeS Oil engine. Roughly, the performance parameters<br />
were a top speed in-level flight <strong>of</strong> around<br />
1000km/h (620mph) at 7000m (23,00()ft) <strong>and</strong> a ceiling<br />
<strong>of</strong> 14,000m (45,900ft); it was to be armed with<br />
fourMK 108 30mm cannon. By February 1945, three<br />
proposals had been received from Messerschmitt, two<br />
from Focke-Wulf <strong>and</strong> one each from Blohm & Voss,<br />
Heinkel <strong>and</strong> Junkers. On the last day <strong>of</strong> the month, a<br />
selection committee sat <strong>and</strong> chose Focke-Wulf's Project<br />
T to go into development as the Ta 183.<br />
THE FOCKE-WULF Ta 183<br />
The two projects from Kurt Tank's design department<br />
were the work <strong>of</strong> a man who has been described as the<br />
most important aerodynamicist in Germany at the<br />
time, Hans Multhopp. They were essentially similar<br />
in character: a fuselage which was no more than a<br />
shroud for the single engine, its intake duct <strong>and</strong><br />
exhaust tube, with the pressurised cockpit <strong>and</strong><br />
weaponry sited above it, which was to be supported<br />
on stubby swept-back shoulder wings (constant-chord<br />
in Project I, variable-chord in Project <strong>II</strong>), with a tail<br />
unit cantilevered out behind. The tail unit itself was<br />
the factor which differentiated the designs. That <strong>of</strong><br />
Project I was entirely innovatory: a T-tail, with the<br />
horizontal control surfaces located at its upper end;<br />
that <strong>of</strong> Project <strong>II</strong> was conventional, with the tailplane<br />
located low down. Otherwise, considerable attention<br />
was paid to ease <strong>of</strong> manufacture with the sort <strong>of</strong><br />
resources which could be expected to be available,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the result <strong>of</strong> that was a projection that each aircraft<br />
would require a total <strong>of</strong> 2500 man-hours (the Me<br />
262 probably never got far below 10,000). No single<br />
Ta 183 was ever built, Focke-Wulf's factories having<br />
been overrun by late April, but it is widely held that<br />
the Soviet Army took a complete set <strong>of</strong> plans, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
design team <strong>of</strong> Mikoyan <strong>and</strong> Gurevich is said to have<br />
used them as the basis for the MiG-15, powered by a<br />
Russian copy <strong>of</strong> the British Rolls-Royce 'Nene' turbojet<br />
engine. SAAB in Sweden later produced a very<br />
similar-looking aircraft as its SAAB-29, this time<br />
powered by a copy <strong>of</strong> the de Havill<strong>and</strong> 'Ghost'.<br />
THE MESSERSCHMITT P. 1101<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Another <strong>of</strong> the aircraft entered for the Emergency<br />
Fighter Competition was also to form the basis <strong>of</strong> a<br />
type built elsewhere, but this time rather more openly.<br />
The Messerschmitt company had in fact anticipated<br />
the need for a replacement for the Me 262 (who was<br />
in a better position to know that aircraft's limitations?)<br />
<strong>and</strong> construction <strong>of</strong> a prototype to replace it,<br />
designed by Woldemar Voigt, had begun in July 1944<br />
as the P. 1101. This was in one particular a remarkable<br />
aircraft, for it was constructed chiefly to determine<br />
the best angle <strong>of</strong> wing sweep; its variable-chord<br />
wings could be reset (on the ground, not in flight) to<br />
any angle between 35 <strong>and</strong> 45 degrees. Otherwise, the<br />
aircraft was conventional in the new mould, with a<br />
single engine located deep within the fuselage <strong>and</strong><br />
exhausting below the extension boom which supported<br />
the tail assembly.<br />
The prototype was about 80 per cent complete<br />
when it was discovered by the Americans on <strong>their</strong><br />
arrival in Oberammergau, <strong>and</strong> it was put on display in<br />
the open along with other 'interesting' developments<br />
from the Messerschmitt studio. It was still there, deteriorating<br />
rapidly, when it was spotted by Robert<br />
Woods, Chief Designer at Bell <strong>Aircraft</strong>, who contrived<br />
to have it sent it to the United States, where it<br />
was eventually restored <strong>and</strong> completed, with the help<br />
<strong>of</strong> Voigt himself, as a non-flying mock-up. It formed<br />
the basis for the first ever variablc-geometry-winged<br />
aircraft, the Bell X-5, the sweep angle <strong>of</strong> which could<br />
be changed in flight to one <strong>of</strong> three pre-sets: 20, 40<br />
<strong>and</strong> 60 degrees. This aircraft made its first flight on 20<br />
June 1951, the geometry <strong>of</strong> the wing being varied in<br />
flight for the first time on 15 July.<br />
THE MESSERSCHMITT P. 1110 AND P. 1111<br />
The other two submissions Messerschmitt made were<br />
less well developed but somewhat more radical. The<br />
P. 11 10 did away with the nose air intake, locating the<br />
engine much further back in the airframe, with the<br />
duct openings on the fuselage shoulders, just forward<br />
<strong>of</strong> the trailing edges <strong>of</strong> the constant-chord swept<br />
wings. The P. 1111 was more adventurous: an allwing<br />
design <strong>of</strong> near-delta planform with a heavily<br />
swept tail fin <strong>and</strong> rudder, the air intakes <strong>of</strong> which were<br />
located in the forward part <strong>of</strong> the wing roots. A proposal<br />
submitted too late for the competition was a<br />
variant <strong>of</strong> this design, with a wing <strong>of</strong> narrower chord<br />
<strong>and</strong> a butterfly tail. Under ideal circumstances, all<br />
three designs would probably have been built in prototype<br />
form <strong>and</strong> flown against each other, but as it<br />
25
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
DORNIER Do 335<br />
Type: Single-seat fighter-bomber<br />
Length: 13.85m (45.44ft)<br />
Span: 13.80m (45.28ft)<br />
Take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 9600kg (21,164lb)<br />
was, none ever progressed beyond a partially completed<br />
wooden mock-up.<br />
THE OTHER CONTENDERS<br />
The other submissions to the Emergency Fighter<br />
Competition were all tailless designs too, which goes<br />
to show, perhaps, how far that concept had been<br />
accepted in Germany by the end <strong>of</strong> 1944. Of these<br />
designs, Blohm & Voss's P. 212 was perhaps the most<br />
radical, with twin stubby fins <strong>and</strong> rudders at the<br />
wingtips, supporting a winglet - half a tailplane,in<br />
fact - the rear surfaces <strong>of</strong> which formed elevators <strong>and</strong><br />
also acted as additional ailerons. Like all Blohm &<br />
Voss's late wartime designs, the P. 212 was the work<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Director <strong>of</strong> Development, Dr Richard Vogt,<br />
who is credited with something like 200 different<br />
ideas for new aircraft, virtually none <strong>of</strong> which even<br />
made it to prototype. The design Heinkel submitted as<br />
P. 1078C was for a more straightforward flying wing.<br />
The wing itself was to have had considerable<br />
anhedral, with the tips turned down through 40<br />
degrees over <strong>their</strong> last 5()cm (20in) or so.<br />
The Junkers P. 128 had a more conventional wing<br />
planform, wider but with a narrower aspect-ratio <strong>and</strong><br />
set at shoulder height, although it had its engine<br />
intake ducts located under the wing at about halfway<br />
through <strong>their</strong> chord length. It had fin lets with rudders,<br />
located about halfway between wing root <strong>and</strong><br />
wingtip, which protruded both above <strong>and</strong> below the<br />
wing surface. All this was the work <strong>of</strong> Heinrich Hertel,<br />
a comparative newcomer to Junkers who, until<br />
1939, had worked with Heinkel on the He 176 <strong>and</strong> the<br />
He 178. He left Heinkel largely, we are told, because<br />
he had little faith in rocket power, so it was somewhat<br />
26<br />
Max speed: 765km/h (475mph) at 6500m<br />
(21,325ft)<br />
Range: 2060km (1280 miles}<br />
Armament: 1 x30mm MK 103 cannon; 2 x<br />
15mm MG 151 machine guns<br />
Above: Besides its 30mm forward-firing cannon <strong>and</strong> 15mm<br />
machine guns, the Do 335 could carry a 1000kg (2200lb)<br />
bombload, half in its weapons bay <strong>and</strong> half on hardpoints<br />
situated beneath its wings.<br />
ironic that he was given the job <strong>of</strong> re-designing the<br />
Me 163 'Komet' (qv) to produce the Ju 248.<br />
Cursory though this analysis has been, we have<br />
touched upon all the major German aircraft manufacturers<br />
save two: Dornier <strong>and</strong> Henschel. Claudius<br />
Dornier was, if anything, more conservative than even<br />
Tank or Hugo Junkers, <strong>and</strong> would have nothing to do<br />
with jet propulsion. His main contribution to aviation<br />
innovation lay in his development <strong>of</strong> a twin-engined<br />
fighter-bomber with its powerplants in a single axis:<br />
Below: The Dornier Do 335 'Pfeil' was potentially the<br />
fastest piston-engined aircraft ever built, with one<br />
1800bhp Daimler-Benz DB 603 engine in the nose <strong>and</strong><br />
another in the tail.
one in the nose, driving a tractor propeller; the other<br />
in the tail, driving a pusher. The Do 335 'Pfeil'<br />
('Arrow', known un<strong>of</strong>ficially as the 'Ameisenbär' -<br />
'Anteater') was potentially the fastest piston-engined<br />
aircraft ever built, yet still exhibited most <strong>of</strong> the<br />
manoeuvrability <strong>of</strong> a single-engined fighter. It<br />
showed no bad manners when flying on only one<br />
engine, <strong>and</strong> could even take <strong>of</strong>f with one inoperative.<br />
The only drawback to the arrangement was that it<br />
required special measures to ab<strong>and</strong>on the aircraft in<br />
an emergency. The rear propeller <strong>and</strong> upper tail fin<br />
were jettisoned, then the canopy was blown <strong>of</strong>f before<br />
the pilot could attempt to bale out (though at least one<br />
example was fitted with an ejection seat, the first in<br />
operational service). Initially, there was considerable<br />
resistance to its development from the RLM for the<br />
somewhat inconclusive reason that Dornier built not<br />
fighters but bombers, <strong>and</strong> the company had to under-<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: Total production <strong>of</strong> the 'Pfeil' ('Arrow'} remained<br />
small, butthat did not prevent the German Air Ministry<br />
from ordering prototypes in configurations to satisfy a<br />
variety <strong>of</strong> roles.<br />
take to build an intruder version before permission to<br />
continue with the project was forthcoming. The first<br />
prototype made its maiden flight in September 1943,<br />
powered by two ISOOhp DB 603 engines. By the end<br />
<strong>of</strong> the war, a version with 2100hp engines was flying.<br />
Several proposals were in process <strong>of</strong> consideration at<br />
the war's end, including swapping the rear engine for<br />
an HeS 011 turbojet <strong>and</strong> linking two aircraft together<br />
by means <strong>of</strong> a short central wing section, like the<br />
Heinkel He 111Z 'Zwilling' (Twin'; see Chapter<br />
Three). Henschel's most important work was to be<br />
done in the Held <strong>of</strong> guided weapons, though the company<br />
did propose a turbojet-powered dive-bomber,<br />
97
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: Despite its appearance, the Heinkel He 177 was<br />
actually a four-engined bomber - each nacelle housed a<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> Daimler-Benz DB 601 engines, each producing<br />
1000bhp, linked to a single propeller.<br />
the Hs 132, which was very well received by RLM. It<br />
was somewhat similar in form to the He 162, with a<br />
single turbojet mounted in a nacelle above the fuselage<br />
<strong>and</strong> a similar tail assembly (the similarities were<br />
not accidental), with a narrow-diameter cigar-shaped<br />
fuselage just big enough to accept a pilot in the prone<br />
position. The company also worked on a contender<br />
for the Emergency Fighter Competition, the Hs 135,<br />
with a compound delta wing like that later incorporated<br />
into the SAAB 'Draken'.<br />
THE GERMAN HEAVY BOMBERS<br />
Of course, jet <strong>and</strong> rocket engines powered only a<br />
small minority <strong>of</strong> the new aircraft produced in Germany<br />
during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. Most <strong>of</strong> them had 'conventional'<br />
piston engines, but the development <strong>of</strong><br />
these aircraft, too, was far from smooth. During the<br />
first three years <strong>of</strong> the war, at least, German aeroengine<br />
manufacturers failed to come up with really<br />
powerful piston engines <strong>and</strong> that caused airframe<br />
designers to adopt some quite novel solutions to the<br />
problem <strong>of</strong> attaining high performance levels, both in<br />
fighter aircraft <strong>and</strong> in the elusive heavy/strategic<br />
bomber development programme.<br />
28<br />
Even though the Luftwaffe was a tactical, closesupport<br />
air force, there was a programme aimed at<br />
developing a strategic bomber during the early years<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Third Reich. This resulted in the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> aircraft such as the Junkers Ju 89/Ju 90 <strong>and</strong> the<br />
stillborn Dornier Do 19, but it died with the Luftwaffe<br />
Chief <strong>of</strong> Staff, General Wever, in a plane crash on 3<br />
June 1936, <strong>and</strong> was not resurrected until halfway<br />
through <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. Even at that relatively late date,<br />
there was no suitable powerplant available for aircraft<br />
capable <strong>of</strong> carrying a 2000kg (44001b) bombload to a<br />
target 1600km (1000 miles) away at a speed <strong>of</strong><br />
500km/h (310mph), <strong>and</strong> the solution adopted was to<br />
couple two engines together to turn a single propeller.<br />
The choice fell on the lOOObhp DB 601, linked to<br />
form the DB 606 (<strong>and</strong> later variants had more power,<br />
culminating in the DB 613, which had 3600hp available<br />
for take-<strong>of</strong>f, with water injection <strong>and</strong> emergency<br />
boost). It was a far from satisfactory solution, <strong>and</strong> for<br />
a long time, the 'siamesed' engines tended to overheat<br />
<strong>and</strong> first vaporise <strong>and</strong> then ignite petrol in adjacent<br />
fuel tanks, with disastrous results.<br />
Both the most important heavy bomber projects -<br />
the Heinkel He 177 'Greif ('Griffon') <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Junkers Ju 288C - had pairs <strong>of</strong> siamesed engines as<br />
<strong>their</strong> powerplant. They were designed to carry both<br />
conventional bombloads in internal bays <strong>and</strong> external<br />
racks but also guided glider bombs such as the 'Fritz-<br />
X' or the Henschel Hs 293 (see Chapter Seven); odd
suggestions for the Ju 288C included some other,<br />
more outl<strong>and</strong>ish features, such as fitting it with the<br />
Düsenkanone 280 or the Gerät 104 'Munchhausen',<br />
single-shot guns <strong>of</strong> 28cm <strong>and</strong> 35.5cm calibre respectively<br />
(see Chapter Six). The Ju 388, which had even<br />
better performance, was planned as both a heavy<br />
bomber <strong>and</strong> a bomber destroyer, using Hs 298 <strong>and</strong><br />
Ruhrstahl X-4 guided air-to-air missiles, <strong>and</strong> was also<br />
to have been employed in towing the Me 328 pulsejet-boosted<br />
glider fighter to operational altitude. The<br />
only one built in significant numbers was the He 177,<br />
over 1000 <strong>of</strong> which were produced. One was modified<br />
to carry the German atomic bomb <strong>and</strong> many were fitted<br />
with forward-firing 5cm <strong>and</strong> 7.5cm anti-tank guns<br />
to be deployed on the Eastern Front. However, it was<br />
never entirely successful, even after five years <strong>of</strong><br />
development. The Ju 288 did not get past the prototype<br />
stage. Some 65 Ju 388s <strong>of</strong> all types were built.<br />
A high-altitude reconnaissance version <strong>of</strong> the He<br />
177 was developed, powered by four (separate) DB<br />
610 engines <strong>of</strong> 1750hp <strong>and</strong> with a new high aspectratio<br />
wing <strong>and</strong> a new twin fin tail. Known as the He<br />
274, the prototype was built in Paris at the old Farman<br />
works, which were overrun in July 1944 before it<br />
could be completed. It was finished by the French <strong>and</strong><br />
Below: The sole example <strong>of</strong> the Me 264, the original<br />
'Amerikabomber', first flew in December 1942. Such close<br />
attention was paid to its aerodynamic properties that the<br />
joints in the wings <strong>and</strong> fuselage were filled with putty.<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: Like so many German aircraft projects, the He 177<br />
was a case <strong>of</strong> 'too little, too late'. By the time it was ready<br />
to go into production, the Luftwaffe had little chance <strong>of</strong><br />
operating a strategic bomber with any degree <strong>of</strong> success.<br />
flown from December 1945. An improved version <strong>of</strong><br />
the bomber, also with four separate engines <strong>and</strong> a<br />
twin fin tail, was built as the He 277, but only eight<br />
were completed before the Emergency Fighter Programme<br />
was put into effect on 3 July 1944.<br />
THE'AMERIKABOMBER'<br />
Although they were developed in considerable secrecy,<br />
these aircraft do not really meet our criteria for<br />
secret weapons, though some 'conventional' piston-
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
engined bombers do. The Luftwaffe, we may recall,<br />
was intended as a tactical, rather than a strategic, air<br />
force, unlike the USAAF <strong>and</strong> the RAF, <strong>and</strong> it never<br />
operated really large, long-range bomber aircraft, like<br />
the American B-17 Flying Fortress or B-24 Liberator,<br />
or the British Lancaster, in any substantial numbers. It<br />
had aircraft, like the Focke-Wulf FW 200 'Condor'<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Junkers Ju 290 (though the former was<br />
designed as a civilian airliner <strong>and</strong> the latter was a<br />
hasty transformation <strong>of</strong> another), which were capable<br />
<strong>of</strong> flying very long distances, but these were intended<br />
primarily for ultra-long-range maritime reconnaissance,<br />
<strong>and</strong> while they did carry bombs (<strong>and</strong> variants<br />
<strong>of</strong> both carried glider bombs), they were unsuitable<br />
for use in combat conditions. Thus, when the USA<br />
declared war on Germany in December 1941, the<br />
Luftwaffe found itself without the means <strong>of</strong> attacking<br />
its new-found enemy, <strong>and</strong> the RLM immediately<br />
issued a specification for a suitable aircraft.<br />
Three companies responded: Focke-Wulf with the<br />
Ta 400; Messerschmitt with the Me 264; <strong>and</strong> Junkers<br />
with the Ju 390. The Ta 400 was never built; the latter,<br />
which was little more than a Ju 290 stretched in<br />
wings <strong>and</strong> fuselage with two more engines, was reasonably<br />
straightforward, <strong>and</strong> the first prototype flew<br />
in August 1943. The second protype had a still longer<br />
fuselage <strong>and</strong> carried FuG 200 Hohentweil search<br />
radar <strong>and</strong> five 20mm cannon. On a test flight from<br />
Mont de Marsan on the Atlantic coast <strong>of</strong> France, near<br />
Bordeaux, it once approached to within 20km (12.4<br />
miles) <strong>of</strong> New York before returning safely to base,<br />
thus validating the operational concept. A third prototype,<br />
this time a version able to carry 1800kg (39701b)<br />
<strong>of</strong> bombs, was begun but never completed.<br />
In fact, certain individuals at the RLM had begun<br />
to contemplate the possibility <strong>of</strong> bombing New York<br />
long before the United States entered the war, <strong>and</strong><br />
Willy Messerschmitt for one had begun to think about<br />
a design for a suitable aircraft. His company was thus<br />
well placed to satisfy the requirement when it was<br />
issued in December 1941, <strong>and</strong> the prototype Me 264<br />
made its first flight just 12 months later. With enough<br />
fuel to reach New York <strong>and</strong> return safely (a flight <strong>of</strong><br />
anything up to 30 hours!), it could carry 3000kg<br />
(66001b) <strong>of</strong> bombs, <strong>and</strong> still had enough capacity to<br />
carry 1000kg (22001b) <strong>of</strong> armour plating. It had two<br />
complete three-man crews with a sleeping area <strong>and</strong><br />
galley, <strong>and</strong> an elaborate defensive armament <strong>of</strong> four<br />
13mm machine guns <strong>and</strong> two 20mm cannon. Under<br />
overload conditions, the aircraft could be fitted with<br />
up to six solid fuel rockets to assist it to take <strong>of</strong>f. A<br />
3 n<br />
bewildering array <strong>of</strong> variants <strong>and</strong> variations were suggested,<br />
including one to tow an Me 328 glider fighter<br />
for protection, <strong>and</strong> another which would have been<br />
the flying testbed for a steam turbine powerplant. Two<br />
prototypes were begun; the first was destroyed in an<br />
air raid just as it was about to begin ground tests, but<br />
the second was completed <strong>and</strong> flew, being allocated to<br />
Transportstaffel 5, which operated other large aircraft<br />
types in the transport role. A version with greater<br />
wingspan <strong>and</strong> six engines was contemplated, but<br />
never produced. Thus the first round <strong>of</strong> the 'Amerikabomber'<br />
contest made no more than a token impact,<br />
but there was to be a second, as we shall see.<br />
THE '3x1000' BOMBERS<br />
Focke-Wulf, which produced the best German pistonengined<br />
single-seater fighter-bomber <strong>of</strong> the war, the<br />
Fw 190, had a genius in its Technical Director, Kurt<br />
Tank, but a very conservative one. As a result, the<br />
company was a latecomer to jet propulsion; too late,<br />
indeed, to see any Focke-Wulf jet fly in other than<br />
prototype form. One <strong>of</strong> those jets - the Fw Ta 183<br />
(qv) - was to prove to be very influential indeed to<br />
post-war development. In 1943, however, the company<br />
did produce a series <strong>of</strong> designs to an in-house<br />
requirement known as '3x1000' for an aircraft to<br />
deliver a 1000kg (22001b) bombload to a target<br />
1000km (620 miles) away at a speed <strong>of</strong> 1000km/h<br />
(620mph). The first two designs had swept wings, one<br />
<strong>of</strong> variable chord <strong>and</strong> one <strong>of</strong> fixed chord, <strong>and</strong> a conventional<br />
tail assembly, but the third, which was much<br />
more radical in nature, was for a tailless 'flying wing',<br />
<strong>and</strong> shows very clearly the influence <strong>of</strong> Alex<strong>and</strong>er<br />
Lippisch, who acted as a consultant to Tank from time<br />
to time. None <strong>of</strong> the designs was ever realised.<br />
Messerschmitt proposed a design to meet the same<br />
requirement, the P. 1107, which had moderately<br />
swept-back wings <strong>and</strong> a butterfly tail. Two basically<br />
similar designs were projected, the second <strong>of</strong> them<br />
with much greater range, but neither was realised.<br />
THE HORTEN BROTHERS<br />
The second <strong>of</strong> those two aircraft, the P. 1107B, would<br />
probably never have had trans-Atlantic range, but during<br />
the plan's currency the prospect <strong>of</strong> bombing the<br />
United States - which was now heavily involved in<br />
the war against Germany, on the ground in Italy <strong>and</strong><br />
in the air from bases in the UK - reared up again.<br />
Once again, design proposals for an appropriate aircraft<br />
were solicited; this time a very different pr<strong>of</strong>ile<br />
emerged, <strong>and</strong> one which shows just how far aerody-
namics had progressed in Germany. The three main<br />
contenders were all <strong>of</strong> delta wing planform, which<br />
was clearly emerging as the shape <strong>of</strong> things to come,<br />
either with or without vertical tail surfaces. Alex<strong>and</strong>er<br />
Lippisch was by no means alone in advocating it: the<br />
Horten brothers, Walter <strong>and</strong> Reimar, were just as<br />
committed <strong>and</strong> had been producing flying examples<br />
<strong>of</strong> delta wing aircraft, both gliders <strong>and</strong> powered aircraft,<br />
since the early 1930s.<br />
The Mortens' first glider had been a wide delta,<br />
with its leading edge swept back at 24 degrees <strong>and</strong> its<br />
trailing edge straight, but the Ho <strong>II</strong> had its trailing<br />
edges swept back, too. Four examples <strong>of</strong> the latter<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: The first prototype <strong>of</strong> the Horten Ho IX was<br />
completed as a glider, but the second was fitted with twin<br />
Jumo 004B engines <strong>and</strong> logged speeds in excess <strong>of</strong><br />
800krn/h (SOOmph). The Ho IX became the Gotha Go 229.<br />
were built as gliders, <strong>and</strong> then one was fitted with a<br />
6()hp Hirth motor driving a pusher propeller. Thanks<br />
to Walter Morten's friendship with Ernst Udet, the<br />
Luftwaffe procurement chief, this was put through a<br />
quasi-<strong>of</strong>ficial trial at the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the bestrespected<br />
test pilots <strong>of</strong> the day, Hanna Reitsch. She<br />
reported that its h<strong>and</strong>ling characteristics were<br />
favourable, that it was not vulnerable to spin or stall,
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: Gotha engineers had misgivings about the ultimate<br />
stability <strong>of</strong> the Go 229, <strong>and</strong> planned to halt the programme.<br />
They were overtaken by events, however, <strong>and</strong> produced<br />
only one prototype, with four more under construction.<br />
but that it was not very manoeuvrable. A series <strong>of</strong><br />
designs, each better executed <strong>and</strong> more radical than<br />
the last (<strong>and</strong> each <strong>of</strong> them tailless), followed, <strong>and</strong> by<br />
the time <strong>of</strong> the Ho V, power had become the norm. By<br />
1940, the Hortcns were operating a Luftwaffe design<br />
studio known as 'Sonderkomm<strong>and</strong>o 9' at Göttingen,<br />
<strong>and</strong> soon produced plans for the Ho V<strong>II</strong>I (a 60-seat<br />
transport aircraft, powered by six pusher propellers),<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Ho IX, a turbojet fighter with twin Jumo 004B<br />
engines. The first prototype <strong>of</strong> the latter was completed<br />
as a glider, <strong>and</strong> the second as a powered aircraft. It<br />
was destroyed in an enforced single-engine l<strong>and</strong>ing,<br />
but not before it had logged speeds in excess <strong>of</strong><br />
800km/h (500mph). It was to go into production as<br />
the Gotha Go 229, with four MK 103 30mm cannon<br />
<strong>and</strong> a 1000kg (22001b) bombload. Only one prototype,<br />
with the more powerful Jumo 004C engine, was<br />
completed before the war's end, though four more<br />
were begun. Calculations suggest that the Go 229<br />
would have had a top speed <strong>of</strong> over 1000km/h<br />
(620mph) <strong>and</strong> indeed, it was presented to Hermann<br />
Goring as a contender for the '3x1000' project, but<br />
engineers at Gothaer Waggonfabrik were far from<br />
happy with its straight-line stability as it had a tendency<br />
to 'Dutch roll', yawing around the vertical Z<br />
axis while rolling from side to side around the X axis.<br />
The engineers planned to halt construction after the<br />
sixth prototype. The Hortens agreed, <strong>and</strong> produced a<br />
new design with a very pronounced, almost exaggerated,<br />
V-shaped fin, the leading edge <strong>of</strong> which came<br />
almost to the nose <strong>and</strong> included the cockpit. Lippisch
HORTEN Ho IX (GOTHA Go 229)<br />
Type: Single-seat fighter-bomber<br />
Length: 7.47m (24.51ft)<br />
Span: 16.78m (55.05ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 8500kg (18,740lb)<br />
Above: The Ho IX/Go 229 would probably have been<br />
Max speed (projected): 1000km/h (620mph) at 6100m (20,015ft)<br />
Range: N/A<br />
capable <strong>of</strong> speeds in level flight in excess <strong>of</strong> 1000km/h<br />
(620mph), which would have made it by far the fastest<br />
production aircraft <strong>of</strong> its day.<br />
Armament (projected): 4 x 30mm MK 103 cannon; 2000kg<br />
(4400lb) bombload<br />
produced several very similar designs. But the Hortens<br />
did not give up the tailless concept either, <strong>and</strong> also<br />
produced for a single-engine interceptor, though by<br />
the time they reached the third evolution, this, too,<br />
had become a delta with a conventional fin tail.<br />
RE-ENTER THE 'AMERIKABOMBER'<br />
By the time the Ho IX/Go 229 project was underway,<br />
the RLM had resurrected the 'Amerikabomber' programme,<br />
but the planemakers selected - Arado,<br />
Focke-Wulf, Heinkel, Junkers <strong>and</strong> Messerschmitt -<br />
had made little progress. Siegfried Kneymeyer then<br />
contacted the Hortens <strong>and</strong> asked them to turn <strong>their</strong><br />
attention to a bomber with trans-Atlantic range. Not<br />
surprisingly, they came up with a flying wing, essentially<br />
an enlarged Ho IX, which they called the P. 18.<br />
All the would-be contenders were summoned to a<br />
conference at the RLM in February 1945, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Horten design was selected for production. The brothers<br />
were instructed to work with designers from<br />
Junkers <strong>and</strong> Messerschmitt, but the proposed consortium<br />
soon fell apart when more conservative elements<br />
insisted on adding a large fin <strong>and</strong> hinged rudder to the<br />
design. Reimar Horten then went directly to Goring<br />
with a modified plan for the P. 18B, employing four<br />
HeS 011 engines in place <strong>of</strong> six Jumo 004s or BMW<br />
003s, saving 1000kg (22001b) with little loss <strong>of</strong> thrust.<br />
The aircraft, he confidently predicted, would have a<br />
JET AIRCRAFT<br />
range <strong>of</strong> 11,000km (6835 miles) at 850km/h (530<br />
mph) <strong>and</strong> fly at an altitude <strong>of</strong> 16,000m (52,500ft) with<br />
a 4000kg (88001b) bombload. He was told to go ahead<br />
<strong>and</strong> build it, but by that time the war had only 10<br />
weeks to run <strong>and</strong> it is doubtful whether detailed plans<br />
were drawn up, though they may have been later, as<br />
both brothers continued to work in aviation for the<br />
rest <strong>of</strong> <strong>their</strong> lives, Walter eventually becoming a leading<br />
light in the new Luftwaffe, Reimar in the aircraft<br />
industry in Argentina.<br />
THE JUNKERS P. 130/P. 140<br />
Junkers had, in addition to Hans Wocke, two other<br />
extremely talented designers in Ernst Zindel <strong>and</strong><br />
Heinrich Hertel. These three soon responded to the<br />
new-found interest in all-wing aircraft <strong>and</strong> proposed<br />
one such <strong>of</strong> <strong>their</strong> own as Project 130. It is suggested<br />
that Hertel had produced the Ju 287 design only as a<br />
means <strong>of</strong> gaining experience in the sort <strong>of</strong> aerodynamics<br />
required by the P. 130, but it is worth bearing<br />
in mind that he had acquired some relevant experience<br />
with the Ju 322 (see Chapter Three). Similar in<br />
character to the Hortens' P. 18B, the P. 130 had a<br />
shorter range (around 5800km; 3600 miles), <strong>and</strong> was<br />
apparently intended to operate against targets in Soviet<br />
Asia <strong>and</strong> in Engl<strong>and</strong> from bases in Prussia. The<br />
'committee-modified' version <strong>of</strong> the P. 18A, with the<br />
addition <strong>of</strong> the long triangular tail fin, became the<br />
Junkers P. 140, with the range to carry 4.06 tonnes (4<br />
tons) <strong>of</strong> bombs to New York. Like the P. 18B, it was<br />
ordered into production, but work had hardly begun<br />
before the underground factory in the Harz mountains<br />
where it was to have been built was overrun.
CHAPTER TWO<br />
Rocket-powered<br />
<strong>Aircraft</strong><br />
Rocket-propelled interceptor aircraft were very attractive to the German Air Ministry,<br />
for they seemed to <strong>of</strong>fer a realistic possibility <strong>of</strong> being able to threaten the high-flying<br />
Allied bombers which, by 1944, were decimating the country's industrial base. This<br />
was particularly true since they did not require fossil fuel, which was in very short<br />
supply by that time, <strong>and</strong> could be constructed cheaply, largely from plywood; a<br />
considerable effort was put into developing such aircraft, but ultimately to no avail.<br />
Had we been considering the history <strong>of</strong> thrustpowered<br />
flight in something like chronological<br />
order, rather than in terms <strong>of</strong> the impact the new technology<br />
had on the course <strong>of</strong> aviation in <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> IT,<br />
we would have examined the rocket before the jet. In<br />
fact, there is little conflict here, for the first effective<br />
demonstrations <strong>of</strong> the two types occurred almost<br />
simultaneously <strong>and</strong> in the same place: in the last<br />
months before the outbreak <strong>of</strong> war, at Ernst Heinkel's<br />
factory at Rostock-Marienehe. While neither type was<br />
actually conceived as a weapons platform, <strong>and</strong> even<br />
Above: The Messerschmitt Me 163B-1 'Komet'.<br />
Left: The Ba 349 had four solid-fuel booster rockets <strong>and</strong> a<br />
liquid fuel sustainer motor, Launched vertically, it was to<br />
have climbed to 14,000m (45,900ft) in one minute.<br />
though neither did what was hoped <strong>of</strong> it, thanks to a<br />
series <strong>of</strong> poor design decisions, both dem<strong>and</strong> inclusion<br />
here because <strong>of</strong> the influence - both positive <strong>and</strong><br />
negative - they exerted. We have seen how the jetpropelled<br />
He 178 was deficient because its designer<br />
failed to solve the problem <strong>of</strong> how to induct air to the<br />
engine efficiently. This, it must be said, would have<br />
been hard to foresee. The main fault <strong>of</strong> the rocketpowered<br />
He 176, on. the other h<strong>and</strong>, was glaringly<br />
obvious, at least to the cognoscenti. Unfortunately,<br />
there were few <strong>of</strong> them around in 1939.<br />
THEHEINKELHe176<br />
The rocket-propelled aircraft designated the He 176<br />
by the Reichsluftfahrtministerium (RLM - the German<br />
Air Ministry) was powered by a Walter Rl motor<br />
3fi
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
using hydrogen peroxide. Earlier versions (more<br />
accurately, existing He 112 fighters with auxiliary<br />
motors) had used a power unit developed by Wernher<br />
von Braun (qv), which used liquid oxygen <strong>and</strong> alcohol,<br />
a rather more volatile mixture. The near-explosive<br />
decomposition <strong>of</strong> hydrogen peroxide into superheated<br />
steam when it comes into contact with a catalyst<br />
such as calcium, potassium or sodium permanganate<br />
was to become a mainstay <strong>of</strong> German propulsion<br />
programmes in a number <strong>of</strong> very different areas,<br />
as we shall see. The He 176 flew for the first time on<br />
30 June 1939. The aircraft probably never exceeded<br />
the st<strong>and</strong>ard it had been designed to beat, 700km/h<br />
(435mph), which was below the world speed record<br />
<strong>of</strong> the day. It was essentially too heavy both for its<br />
powerplant <strong>and</strong> for its short, stubby wings. The RLM<br />
showed little interest in it, favouring the design which<br />
would become the Messerschmitt Me 163 'Komet'<br />
(qv). Heinkel ab<strong>and</strong>oned the project.<br />
ALEXANDER LIPPISCH<br />
Alex<strong>and</strong>er Lippisch was a self-taught aerodynamicist<br />
who had worked at Zeppelin/Dornier after <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong><br />
1, then at Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft (RRG - which<br />
Below: The Messerschmitt Me 163 'Komet' interceptor<br />
first went into action in August 1944. It accounted for only<br />
about a dozen Allied bombers in six or seven months.<br />
developed gliders for meteorological research,<br />
amongst other things), <strong>and</strong> later, when RRG was<br />
absorbed into it, at the Deutsches Forschungsinstitut<br />
für Segelflug (DFS - German Glider Research Institute).<br />
Lippisch maintained that had Heinkel had even<br />
a narrow underst<strong>and</strong>ing <strong>of</strong> the nature <strong>of</strong> gliders, he<br />
would have realised that he needed a large wing area<br />
(<strong>and</strong> a small wing loading) to make an aircraft such as<br />
the He 176 fly adequately, as it had only very<br />
marginal power reserves. Instead, Heinkel had given<br />
his proto-rocket aircraft short, stubby wings which<br />
were really little more than control surfaces, <strong>and</strong> his<br />
experiments failed in direct consequence. Lippisch<br />
went further than that, <strong>of</strong> course. Like the Horten<br />
brothers, he was a staunch <strong>and</strong> unremitting advocate<br />
<strong>of</strong> the tailless, delta-pianform flying wing, <strong>and</strong> was<br />
the first to fly such a design, in 1931. Three years<br />
before that, however, Lippisch had produced a rocketpropelled<br />
glider for automobile manufacturer Fritz<br />
von Opel, who saw the new technology mostly in<br />
terms <strong>of</strong> its ability to attract crowds, but who was<br />
interested enough (<strong>and</strong> rich enough) to provide seed<br />
money for would-be pioneers. Opel lost interest in the<br />
early 1930s, after rocket-powered gliders had been<br />
the death <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> pilots. Lippisch's 'Ente'<br />
('Duck') became the first rocket-powered aircraft to<br />
fly, with Fritz Stammer at the controls, on 11 June<br />
1928. By 1933, Lippisch had designed a variety <strong>of</strong>
MESSERSCHMITT Me 163B-1<br />
Type: Single-seat interceptor fighter<br />
Length: 5.69m (18.66ft)<br />
Span: 9.33m (30.60ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 4110kg (9061 Ib)<br />
delta-wing gliders <strong>and</strong> had begun to fit small engines<br />
to them. He collaborated with Focke-Wulf <strong>and</strong> with<br />
Gerhard Fieseler, <strong>and</strong> with the latter, built the twoseat,<br />
twin-engine (pusher <strong>and</strong> tractor) Delta <strong>II</strong>I<br />
'Wespe' ('Wasp') <strong>and</strong> Delta IV, only to see both crash<br />
at the cost <strong>of</strong> one pilot's life within a fortnight. RLM<br />
promptly banned tailless aircraft, <strong>and</strong> it was some<br />
time, <strong>and</strong> then only at the urging <strong>of</strong> Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Walter<br />
Georgii, the Director <strong>of</strong> DPS, before the ban was lifted.<br />
A modified Delta IVb followed, with the RLM<br />
designation DPS 39, <strong>and</strong> in 1939, orders were issued<br />
for the construction <strong>of</strong> a version to be powered by a<br />
Walter rocket motor. DPS built the wings, which were<br />
<strong>of</strong> near-delta planform, <strong>and</strong> Heinkel built the rest <strong>of</strong><br />
the airframe, alongside the He 176 with which it<br />
shared its powerplant. The design's concession to the<br />
RLM was the small wingtip rudders, but after windtunnel<br />
testing, Lippisch concluded that these would<br />
only cause flutter <strong>and</strong>, ultimately, main spar failure.<br />
Thus, the DPS 194, its successor, acquired a single,<br />
central fin <strong>and</strong> rudder. Using as its 'fuel' T-St<strong>of</strong>f (an<br />
80 per cent aqueous solution <strong>of</strong> hydrogen peroxide<br />
plus oxyquinoline as a stabiliser) <strong>and</strong> Z-St<strong>of</strong>f (an<br />
aqueous solution <strong>of</strong> sodium <strong>and</strong> potassium permanganates<br />
to promote decomposition), the Walter RI-<br />
203 rocket was to propel the prototype at speeds <strong>of</strong> up<br />
to 500km/h (310mph). It was clear from the outset<br />
that this was a major achievement <strong>and</strong> Lippisch was<br />
ordered to Messerschmitt's Augsburg research centre<br />
with his research <strong>and</strong> development team in January<br />
1939. There the DPS 194 metamorphosed into the<br />
Messerschmitt Me 163 'Komet' ('Comet').<br />
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: 'White 13' - an Me 163B-1a <strong>of</strong> 1/JG 400, which<br />
operated from near Leipzig between July 1944 <strong>and</strong> April<br />
1945, defending the Leuna-Merseburg refinery complex.<br />
THE Me 163'KOMET'<br />
The 'Komet', which preceded the jet-propelled Me<br />
262 into service by a little over two months, was a<br />
radical <strong>and</strong> adventurous approach to the problem <strong>of</strong><br />
how to defeat the heavily armed <strong>and</strong> protected<br />
bomber aircraft which were flown in formations<br />
designed to create an impenetrable defensive box. Its<br />
designation, all <strong>of</strong> them were decided by the RLM, is<br />
somewhat misleading, for Messerschmitt AG actually<br />
had little to do with its development, which remained<br />
in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> its creator. In the spring <strong>of</strong> 1941, the<br />
prototype <strong>of</strong> the new aircraft began gliding trials;<br />
towed to a height <strong>of</strong> up to 8000m (26,250ft), it was<br />
soon achieving speeds <strong>of</strong> up to 850km/h (530mph)<br />
while retaining a high degree <strong>of</strong> controllability, <strong>and</strong><br />
during the summer it was sent to the rocket development<br />
establishment at Peenemiinde-West on the<br />
Baltic coast, to be fitted with a rocket motor - an<br />
improved model <strong>of</strong> the Walter Rl incorporating a<br />
degree <strong>of</strong> thrust control but still using T-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Z-<br />
St<strong>of</strong>f as its fuel. The development programme at<br />
Peenemünde was fraught with accidents, some fatal,<br />
as time after time the volatile fuels spontaneously<br />
exploded. On one occasion, an entire building was<br />
demolished. However, it also resulted in the Me 163<br />
VI breaking the world speed record repeatedly until<br />
the test pilot, Heini Dittmar, finally exceeded<br />
1000km/h (620mph), almost killing himself in the<br />
37
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
FIESELER Fi 103R REICHENBERG IV<br />
Type: Single-seat flying bomb<br />
Length: 8.00m (26.25ft)<br />
Span: 5.715m (18.75ft)<br />
Launch weight: 2180kg (4806lb)<br />
Above: The Reichenberg IV, as the manned version <strong>of</strong> the<br />
VI flying bomb was known, was little more than a fantasy,<br />
though prototypes did fly.<br />
process when the aircraft became suddenly uncontrollable<br />
as compression shock (shocks caused by airflow<br />
over the wing surface locally exceeding the speed <strong>of</strong><br />
sound) induced negative lift <strong>and</strong> massive vibration. In<br />
the event, Dittmar managed to regain control <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong><br />
successfully. The RLM, impressed, ordered prototypes<br />
<strong>of</strong> an operational aircraft, the Me 163B, to be<br />
armed with a pair <strong>of</strong> MG 151 20mm cannon <strong>and</strong> powered<br />
by a more powerful 509-A2 rocket motor using<br />
the somewhat less unpredictable combination <strong>of</strong> T-<br />
St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> C-St<strong>of</strong>f (30 per cent hydrazine hydrate, 57<br />
per cent methanol, 13 per cent water) as its fuel <strong>and</strong><br />
producing 1500kg (33001b) <strong>of</strong> thrust. Around 2.032<br />
tonnes (2 tons) <strong>of</strong> propellant (very nearly half the<br />
entire weight <strong>of</strong> the aircraft) was enough to take it to<br />
its operational ceiling <strong>of</strong> 12,100m (39,700ft) in 3.35<br />
minutes, <strong>and</strong> the pilot then had a further four <strong>and</strong> a<br />
Max speed: 650km/h (404mph) at sea level<br />
Endurance: 20 minutes<br />
Payload: 850kg (1874lb) warhead<br />
half minutes <strong>of</strong> powered flight available: thus, he<br />
would actually have been gliding, unpowered, during<br />
most <strong>of</strong> his mission.<br />
Two Me 163B-las were h<strong>and</strong>ed over to a special<br />
Luftwaffe unit early in 1943 to allow pilot familiarisation<br />
to begin, though it was July before training<br />
actually commenced. The high l<strong>and</strong>ing speed <strong>of</strong> the<br />
'Komet' (around 220km/h; 140mph) combined with<br />
the fact that the pilot was committed to it from the<br />
outset, having no power available to allow him to<br />
regain height for a second attempt, resulted in many<br />
accidents, most <strong>of</strong> them fatal. The first operational<br />
unit, equipped with Me 163B-la aircraft, with a pair<br />
<strong>of</strong> 30mm cannon in the wing roots <strong>and</strong> a considerable<br />
degree <strong>of</strong> armour protection for the pilot, began forming<br />
at Wittmundhaven in May 1944, <strong>and</strong> first went<br />
into action as 1/JG400 on 16 August. It scored its first<br />
success some days later, when Leutnant Hartmut Ryll<br />
downed a B-17 near Leipzig. In all, some 300 Me<br />
163s in various versions were constructed (<strong>and</strong> rights<br />
to it were sold to Japan, where five powered <strong>and</strong> over
50 unpowered versions were built before the war's<br />
end), but the aircraft was only a very limited success,<br />
accounting, it is believed, for little more than 12<br />
American B-17s. An improved version, known originally<br />
as the Ju 248, was produced at Junkers <strong>and</strong> then<br />
taken over by Messerschmitt as the Me 263. It was<br />
somewhat larger, had a wheeled undercarriage rather<br />
than skids, <strong>and</strong> was powered by a Walter 509C motor.<br />
It was produced in prototype form only.<br />
THE SELBSTOPFERMÄNNER FIGHTERS<br />
In fact, like the Me 262, the 'Komet' was too little, too<br />
late. So desperate was the situation in Germany by the<br />
summer <strong>of</strong> 1944 that individual fighter pilots had<br />
taken to ramming Allied bombers, <strong>and</strong> units such as<br />
IV/JG3 <strong>and</strong> TI/JG300 were formed as Sturmgruppen<br />
(assault groups) with that as an accepted fall-back tactic<br />
using Fw 190A-8/R2s fitted with frontal armour.<br />
They had a measure <strong>of</strong> success: between 7 July 1944<br />
<strong>and</strong> the end <strong>of</strong> March 1945, when they ceased to operate,<br />
they accounted for around 500 Allied bombers,<br />
but only 10 <strong>of</strong> them by ramming. In April 1945, Sonderkomm<strong>and</strong>o<br />
Elbe was formed from volunteers; they<br />
trained for 10 days in ramming tactics, <strong>and</strong> then went<br />
into action. In all, they rammed <strong>and</strong> downed eight, but<br />
at a high cost to themselves: a total <strong>of</strong> 77 Bf 109s <strong>and</strong><br />
Fw 190s. If such potentially self-sacrificial Selb-<br />
Stopfermänner tactics were to be employed, then<br />
clearly a much less sophisticated aircraft, using little<br />
in the way <strong>of</strong> strategic materials, could be employed<br />
instead <strong>of</strong> some <strong>of</strong> the best piston-engined fighters <strong>of</strong><br />
the entire period.<br />
At this point we need to take a very short diversion<br />
to consider the nature <strong>of</strong> Selbstopfermänner tactics. It<br />
was never the stated intention to require or even ask<br />
aircrew to commit suicide in Germany in the way that<br />
it was in Japan, <strong>and</strong> great pains were taken to maintain<br />
that the very reverse was actually the case. The<br />
Selbstopfermänner were expected only to employ<br />
<strong>their</strong> aircraft as weapons in the last resort (though<br />
recruits to the Sturmgruppen were required to take an<br />
oath that they would indeed do this if necessary), <strong>and</strong><br />
to make every effort to ensure that the attack left them<br />
with the possibility <strong>of</strong> escape. As will be noted when<br />
discussing the manned Fi 103s, the possibilities <strong>of</strong><br />
this happening were remote, <strong>and</strong> it must be concluded<br />
that there was a secret agenda, <strong>and</strong> that the men<br />
Right: The launch <strong>of</strong> the Ba 349 was so violent that the<br />
pilot was expected to black out; the climb to operational<br />
altitude was under a simple automatic guidance system.<br />
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
(<strong>and</strong> women; Hanna Reitsch was an advocate <strong>of</strong> such<br />
tactics) concerned knew exactly what they were being<br />
called upon to do, <strong>and</strong> that the disclaimers were there<br />
only for public relations purposes.<br />
THE Ba 349'NATTER'<br />
The 'Komet' was hardly a sophisticated aircraft.<br />
However, according to Dr Erich Bachern the 'Komet'<br />
was over-sophisticated. Bachern was an experienced<br />
glider pilot <strong>and</strong> one-time Technical Director <strong>of</strong> Fieseler<br />
AG, which was latterly a manufacturer <strong>of</strong> wings for<br />
Henschel missiles <strong>and</strong> control surfaces for the A4 <strong>and</strong><br />
where Bachem had designed the Fi 156 'Storch'<br />
('Stork') observation <strong>and</strong> light utility aircraft. He<br />
claimed that a wooden glider, simple enough to have<br />
been built in a carpentry workshop <strong>and</strong> propelled by a<br />
similar rocket motor to that used in the 'Komet',<br />
39
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
BACHEM Ba 349<br />
Type: Single-seat expendable interceptor<br />
Length: 6.10m (20.00ft)<br />
Span: 3.60m (11.81ft)<br />
Launch weight: 2200kg (4850lb)<br />
Above: The 'Natter' was conceived as the simplest means<br />
<strong>of</strong> getting a man within range <strong>of</strong> the high-flying bombers.<br />
The array <strong>of</strong> rockets in the nose were its sole weapons.<br />
aided by four solid-fuel boosters so that it could take<br />
<strong>of</strong>f vertically, would do the job equally well. It would<br />
climb to 14,000m (45,900ft) in little over a minute<br />
under control <strong>of</strong> a simple automatic guidance system,<br />
whereupon its pilot, by now hopefully having<br />
regained consciousness after blacking out under the<br />
forces generated at take-<strong>of</strong>f, would take over <strong>and</strong><br />
4fl<br />
Max speed: 800km/h (500mph) at sea level<br />
Radius <strong>of</strong> action: 40km (25 miles)<br />
Armament: 24 Föhn 7.3cm (2.8in) rockets<br />
make a diving attack on the enemy bomber formation<br />
on his way back to earth. He would bale out to l<strong>and</strong><br />
by parachute only when he had fired his only armament<br />
(the 24 Henschel Hs 217 'Föhn' 7.3cm or R4M<br />
5.5cm unguided rockets contained in an array in the<br />
nose), <strong>and</strong> had reduced his speed to around 250km/h<br />
(155mph), while the 'aircraft' from the cockpit back<br />
also descended by parachute in the hope <strong>of</strong> recovering<br />
the rocket motor for re-use. From 22 December 1944,<br />
a series <strong>of</strong> 11 unmanned launches were made on the<br />
power <strong>of</strong> the booster motors alone, <strong>and</strong> on 23
February 1945, a single, unmanned test launch took<br />
place using the Walter motor as well. Some days later<br />
a manned launch was ordered by the SS<br />
(Schutzstaffeln: the Nazis' private army) which, by<br />
that time, had control <strong>of</strong> all secret weapons projects,<br />
even though the unmanned programme had not been<br />
completed <strong>and</strong> there were grave doubts about the aircraft's<br />
viability. The pilot, one Lothar Siebert, was<br />
killed when the Ba 349 power-dived into the ground<br />
from a height <strong>of</strong> 1500m (4900ft) after having rolled<br />
on to its back. The testing programme continued, <strong>and</strong><br />
perhaps 20 aircraft (some reports say 36) intended for<br />
operations were produced, but none flew in combat. It<br />
is thought that two examples remain, both in museum<br />
storage: one in the USA, the other in Germany.<br />
Ernst Heinkel proposed a very similar aircraft to<br />
the Bachern 'Natter' ('Viper'). The P. 1077 'Julia' (it<br />
never received an RLM designator) was also to have<br />
been powered by a Walter 509 motor <strong>and</strong> four solidfuel<br />
Schmidding 533 boosters. It was to have taken<br />
<strong>of</strong>f from an inclined ramp, to climb to 15,000m<br />
(49,210ft) in 72 seconds, <strong>and</strong> to have been armed with<br />
two MK 108 cannon. It was a high-wing monoplane<br />
with almost square-planform wings with considerable<br />
anhedral at the tips, <strong>and</strong> drawings showing two different<br />
tail assemblies - one with a single dorsal fin <strong>and</strong><br />
high-set stubby tailplanes; the other with a single high<br />
tailplane terminating in dorsal/ventral fins - were produced.<br />
It is probably better considered as a manned<br />
missile than an aircraft. There is no account <strong>of</strong> how<br />
the pilot was supposed to complete the mission <strong>and</strong><br />
return safely to earth.<br />
There is some question whether the 'Natter' actually<br />
fits our criteria for Selbstopfermänner aircraft at<br />
all, since the pilot was expected to break <strong>of</strong>f his attack<br />
<strong>and</strong> turn for home before ejecting (indeed, he was<br />
provided with an escape system), but there is less<br />
doubt in similar concepts put forward by Zeppelin<br />
<strong>and</strong> DPS, both <strong>of</strong> which proposed what were essentially<br />
motor-assisted gliders to be towed into attack<br />
position by aircraft. The Zeppelin proposal - the<br />
'Rammer' - had a solid-fuel rocket motor; the DPS<br />
aircraft, which went into development as the Messerschmitt<br />
Me 328, had an Argus pulse-jet like that<br />
which powered the Fieseler Fi 103 flying bomb (qv).<br />
There were high hopes <strong>of</strong> the latter, in particular, but<br />
like the Ba 349, it never got past the prototype stage.<br />
There was a third, very similar, project, the Sombold<br />
So 334 'Rammschussjäger', which, despite its name,<br />
was not actually intended to ram. It, too, was powered<br />
by the Walter 509 motor <strong>and</strong> armed with rockets, <strong>and</strong><br />
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
was to have been towed to operating height. Like the<br />
Me 328, it started out as a parasite escort fighter project<br />
but never got further than a wind tunnel model.<br />
Blohm & Voss proposed a pure glider fighter, with no<br />
powerplant at all, as the Bv 40. Armed with 30mm<br />
cannon <strong>and</strong> towing a proximity-fuzed bomb on a<br />
cable, the Bv 40 was to have been towed to a position<br />
above the incoming bomber 'box' by a Bf 109 <strong>and</strong><br />
then released. Its limited acceptance was perhaps<br />
indicative <strong>of</strong> the state <strong>of</strong> mind in Germany by 1944<br />
when prototypes were built <strong>and</strong> tested.<br />
THE ZEPPELIN'RAMMER'<br />
The Zeppelin 'Rammer' never received an RLM designation,<br />
which is an indication that perhaps it was<br />
not taken entirely seriously. It was to have been a<br />
small conventional aircraft with straight, constantchord<br />
wings <strong>and</strong> tailplane, <strong>and</strong> was to have been<br />
towed to its operational altitude by a Bf 109 or a Bf<br />
110 <strong>and</strong> cast loose, whereupon it would start its<br />
Schmidding 533 solid-fuel rocket motor <strong>and</strong> head for<br />
the bomber formation, first firing its load <strong>of</strong> 14 R4M<br />
5cm rockets <strong>and</strong> then trying to ram or sideswipe the<br />
bomber aircraft, using its hugely strong wings. The<br />
wing's leading edges were to have been covered in<br />
3cm- (1.18in-) thick steel, <strong>and</strong> they were to have had<br />
three continuous parallel main spars, fabricated from<br />
thick-walled steel tubing, running from tip to tip to<br />
slice through fuselage, tailplane or wings. The pilot,<br />
who flew the aircraft in the prone position, was not<br />
expected to take to his parachute, but was to have<br />
l<strong>and</strong>ed the aircraft on any convenient piece <strong>of</strong> open<br />
ground so that it could be recovered <strong>and</strong> re-used. It is<br />
thought that no prototype nor even a mock-up <strong>of</strong> the<br />
'Rammer' was actually constructed.<br />
THE MESSERSCHMITT Me 328<br />
The history <strong>of</strong> the Me 328 - which, like the 'Komet',<br />
started life as a DPS project - began in 1941, rather<br />
earlier than those <strong>of</strong> the other 'last-ditch' fighters. It<br />
was concieved as an escort fighter, to be towed by a<br />
Heinkel He 177 bomber on a semi-rigid bar (the<br />
'Deichselschlepp' system, which was also under consideration<br />
for use with manned glider bombers <strong>and</strong><br />
auxiliary fuel tanks) or mounted on a Dornier Do 217<br />
or a Messerschmitt Me 264 in a 'Mistel'-like arrangement<br />
(qv). A variety <strong>of</strong> versions were projected: a<br />
pure glider; with Argus pulse-jets; <strong>and</strong> with a Jumo<br />
004 turbojet. Only the pure glider <strong>and</strong> the pulse-jet<br />
versions were produced (<strong>and</strong> then only in prototype<br />
form). The ubiquitous Hanna Reitsch was responsible
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT
for completing a test programme on the two prototypes<br />
<strong>of</strong> the glider version, cutting loose from tow<br />
planes at altitudes <strong>of</strong> 3000-6000m (9800-19,700ft).<br />
Ground launches, using both cable-type catapults <strong>and</strong><br />
rocket-assisted rail carriages, were also undertaken,<br />
with equal success. Even with reduced wingspan, the<br />
aircraft performed very satisfactorily, <strong>and</strong> it was<br />
planned to build up to 1000 for use as disposable<br />
bombers, to be flown by volunteers from 5/KG200,<br />
the so-called 'Staffel Leonidas'.<br />
Seven prototypes <strong>of</strong> the Argus pulse-jet-powered<br />
version were built by a glider maker, Jacob Schweyer<br />
Segelflugzeugbau. It was intended for use as a fighter<br />
aircraft, to be armed with two MG 151 machine guns.<br />
Tn static testing it soon became obvious that the same<br />
problems which were to plague the early development<br />
<strong>of</strong> the VI flying bomb - notably, excessive vibration<br />
- would make the project difficult to bring to a successful<br />
conclusion, <strong>and</strong> the manned flight programme<br />
was suspended in mid-1944, after only a few test<br />
flights had been made. Nonetheless, planning still<br />
went ahead, <strong>and</strong> a version was projected, employing<br />
no less than four Argus 109-014 pulse-jets, two<br />
mounted below the mid-set wings in addition to the<br />
original pair mounted above the rear fuselage, <strong>their</strong> jet<br />
tubes protruding behind the fin below the tailplane.<br />
Bomber versions <strong>of</strong> both these aircraft were also<br />
proposed (<strong>and</strong> would actually have made greater<br />
sense since the pulse-jet's characteristics were unsuited<br />
to its use as a fighter powerplant). At Hitler's insistence,<br />
work on the bomber version continued long<br />
past the point when anything other than token use<br />
Left: No more than 36 Ba 349s were constructed; none<br />
was ever sent into combat, <strong>and</strong> most finished like these<br />
three battered examples in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> GIs in Bavaria.<br />
ROCKET-POWERED AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: The Blohm & Voss Bv 40 was an unpowered glider<br />
<strong>and</strong> was to have been towed into position above the<br />
approaching bombers before making its attack.<br />
could have been made <strong>of</strong> it. Perhaps the most farfetched<br />
suggestion for a version <strong>of</strong> the Me 328 was<br />
that with folding wings <strong>and</strong> twin pulse-jets, designed<br />
to be launched from a catapult set up on the foredeck<br />
<strong>of</strong> a submarine.<br />
THE BLOHM & VOSS Bv 40<br />
The simplest <strong>and</strong> cheapest - <strong>and</strong> perhaps the most<br />
sensible - proposal for a Selbstopfermänner fighter<br />
came from Blohm & Voss's Richard Vogt in mid-<br />
1943. The Bv 40 was a simple small armoured glider,<br />
armed with a pair <strong>of</strong> 30mm cannon <strong>and</strong> fitted with a<br />
considerable degree <strong>of</strong> frontal protection, constructed<br />
by unskilled workers from non-strategic materials,<br />
which was to have been towed to a position above the<br />
bomber formations by a Bf 109G <strong>and</strong> then cast loose<br />
to prosecute a head-on diving attack. One proposed<br />
innovation was the 'Gerät-Schlinge', which was really<br />
nothing more than a towed aerial mine on a long<br />
cable, <strong>and</strong> which was to be exploded when it was<br />
within the bomber formation (although the bomb<br />
tended to trail directly behind the glider, rather than<br />
some way below it, <strong>and</strong> it was difficult to place as a<br />
result). R4M rockets <strong>and</strong> 250kg (55()lb) bombs, to be<br />
dropped into bomber formations from above, were<br />
also suggested, as was a version to carry four aerial<br />
torpedoes. Six prototypes were constructed, <strong>and</strong> five<br />
flew before the project was cancelled in late 1944. In<br />
an attempt to resurrect it, Vogt suggested fitting it with<br />
Argus pulse-jets mounted under the wings, but he was<br />
unsuccessful, the Me 328 having taken up what small<br />
degree <strong>of</strong> enthusiasm existed for such a solution.
CHAPTER THREE<br />
Hybrid <strong>Aircraft</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
Gliders<br />
During <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, Germany made extensive use <strong>of</strong> unpowered aircraft in the<br />
transport role, <strong>and</strong> though they met with diminishing success, they proved a useful<br />
addition to the Reich's logistical fleet. In a parallel development, technology<br />
developed for glider bombs was applied to the guidance <strong>of</strong> unmanned powered<br />
aircraft too, the flight to the vicinity <strong>of</strong> the target being under the control <strong>of</strong> the pilot<br />
<strong>of</strong> a single-engined fighter mounted piggyback on the explosives-packed bomber.<br />
Even after the new German Air Force was established,<br />
the unpowered aircraft still occupied an<br />
important place in its order <strong>of</strong> battle, perhaps because<br />
almost all Luftwaffe pilots recruited before Germany<br />
openly re-armed had learned to fly in gliders. As we<br />
have seen, many important new developments in aviation<br />
sprang from the Deutsches Forschungsinstitut<br />
für Segelflug (DFS).<br />
Above: The DFS 230 carried Luftwaffe paratroops into<br />
action against the Belgian fortress <strong>of</strong> Eben-Emael.<br />
Left: The 'Mistel' was a fighter mated with an unmanned<br />
bomber, the nose <strong>of</strong> which was an explosive charge.<br />
THE DFS 230<br />
Gliders were eventually to be developed in Germany<br />
in all shapes <strong>and</strong> sizes <strong>and</strong> for a variety <strong>of</strong> roles. We<br />
have seen them as both bombers <strong>and</strong> fighters, but they<br />
were actually more effective, at least in combat terms,<br />
as troop carriers <strong>and</strong> transports. The first to see action<br />
was the diminutive DFS 230, a conventional glider<br />
with straight, high aspect ratio wings, developed from<br />
a prototype built by Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft in<br />
1932, which could carry eight combat-equipped soldiers.<br />
In a very real sense, the DFS 230 was a secret<br />
weapon par excellence, for in its combat debut, when<br />
Luftwaffe paratroopers used it to assault <strong>and</strong> capture<br />
the huge Belgian fortress at Eben-Emael on 10 May<br />
45
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
1940, it achieved complete tactical <strong>and</strong> strategic surprise,<br />
<strong>and</strong> allowed the Wehrmacht to cross into Belgium<br />
virtually unopposed. Despite that success, once<br />
<strong>their</strong> existence was known, gliders proved to be an<br />
expensive way <strong>of</strong> getting infantry into combat, <strong>and</strong><br />
after a near disaster in Crete, were not employed in<br />
that role by the Luftwaffe, although they were used in<br />
an even more dramatic way in September 1943, when<br />
comm<strong>and</strong>os led by Otto Skorzeny l<strong>and</strong>ed 12 DPS<br />
230s on a narrow strip <strong>of</strong> l<strong>and</strong> in front <strong>of</strong> the Rifugio<br />
Hotel on the Gran Sasso <strong>and</strong> liberated deposed Italian<br />
dictator Benito Mussolini. From then on, it was left to<br />
the Allies to employ them, notably in Sicily in July<br />
1943, in Norm<strong>and</strong>y in June 1944, <strong>and</strong> at Arnhem in<br />
September <strong>of</strong> that year. That is not to say that the<br />
Luftwaffe had given up on them by any means.<br />
THE DPS 228 AND DPS 346<br />
DPS later built a single prototype <strong>of</strong> a cargo-carrying<br />
glider, the DPS 331, in 1941, but by that time the<br />
main thrust <strong>of</strong> the Institute's work lay in the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> high-performance experimental sailplanes.<br />
The most significant <strong>of</strong> those was the DPS 228,<br />
planned as a high-altitude photo-reconnaissance aircraft,<br />
to be transported to an altitude <strong>of</strong> 10,000m<br />
(32,8()()ft) or more <strong>and</strong> released, a rocket motor then<br />
taking it to an altitude <strong>of</strong> 23,00()m (75,400ft). The<br />
rocket motor was then to have been used intermittently<br />
to maintain altitude until its fuel was exhausted,<br />
whereupon the DPS 228 would glide back to friendly<br />
territory. Depending on thermal conditions, it was<br />
confidently expected that the aircraft would be able to<br />
return from targets over 1000km (620 miles) away.<br />
46<br />
Above: The difficult <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>ing Troika-Schlepp' -<br />
requiring the service <strong>of</strong> three Bf 11 Os-was the original<br />
method <strong>of</strong> getting a fully loaded 'Gigant' glider into the air.<br />
Only a few were constructed. Many test flights were<br />
made, all <strong>of</strong> them it is believed (though there are differing<br />
reports) without rocket power, <strong>and</strong> a new pressurised<br />
cabin, with the pilot in the prone position, was<br />
eventually developed <strong>and</strong> tried out just days before<br />
the war's end. Both the original cabin, in which the<br />
pilot sat upright, <strong>and</strong> the later version, which was very<br />
much more effective, were attached to the rest <strong>of</strong> the<br />
airframe by explosive bolts. Set free, the nose cone<br />
deployed a parachute <strong>and</strong> descended with the pilot<br />
still on board until the outside temperature <strong>and</strong> pressure<br />
reached life-supporting levels, whereupon his<br />
seat or couch was ejected by compressed air <strong>and</strong> he<br />
made a normal parachute descent.<br />
A development <strong>of</strong> the DPS 228, the DPS 346, was<br />
designed as a supersonic trials aircraft. It was to have<br />
had two rocket motors, variable-chord swept wings<br />
<strong>and</strong> a Multhopp-style T-tail, but was otherwise similar<br />
to the DPS 228 in its later incarnation, although<br />
constructed entirely <strong>of</strong> stressed aluminium rather than<br />
wood. An unpowered prototype was to have been<br />
built (in wood). It is believed that this aircraft <strong>and</strong> a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> somewhat modified DPS 346s were constructed<br />
in the Soviet Union after the war, <strong>and</strong> there<br />
are persistent but unsubstantiated claims that the former<br />
was the first aircraft to exceed the speed <strong>of</strong> sound<br />
with DPS test pilot Wolfgang Ziese at the controls in<br />
May 1947, some five months before Chuck Yeager's<br />
supersonic flight in a Bell X-l on 14 October.
THE GIANT TRANSPORT GLIDERS<br />
At the other end <strong>of</strong> the performance scale, two projects<br />
to develop heavy-lift gliders capable <strong>of</strong> carrying<br />
up to 22,000kg (48,5001b) <strong>of</strong> cargo - the approximate<br />
weight <strong>of</strong> a combat infantry company, with all its<br />
equipment - were ordered up by the RLM: one <strong>of</strong><br />
them from Messerschmitt, as the Me 321 'Gigant'<br />
('Giant'); the other from Junkers, as the Ju 322<br />
'Mammut' ('Mammoth'), originally named 'Goliath'.<br />
The Messerschmitt aircraft was ultimately to be the<br />
most successful by far, with about 200 built, but the<br />
Junkers 'Mammut' was the more interesting <strong>of</strong> the<br />
two, despite being a constructive failure.<br />
THE Me 321'GIGANT'<br />
The Me 321 was conventional in that it had a fuselage<br />
to which the high-set wings <strong>and</strong> empennage were<br />
attached. It was constructed from welded steel tubing<br />
<strong>and</strong> wood with a covering <strong>of</strong> fabric <strong>and</strong> wood, <strong>and</strong> its<br />
fuselage was rectangular in cross-section, very tall<br />
towards the nose (which had clam-shell doors for<br />
loading <strong>and</strong> unloading vehicles) <strong>and</strong> tapering towards<br />
the tail, with side doors at the rear for passengers. The<br />
cockpit was located on top <strong>of</strong> the fuselage, level with<br />
the leading edge <strong>of</strong> the wing, which was straight <strong>and</strong><br />
tapered, with a span <strong>of</strong> 55m (180.5ft), braced by struts<br />
to the fuselage floor at the point where the fixed<br />
wheels were mounted. The tail was composed <strong>of</strong> a tall<br />
fin <strong>and</strong> a braced tailplane. The aircraft performed perfectly<br />
from the first flight, which took place at<br />
Leipheim in March 1941, <strong>and</strong> was quite capable <strong>of</strong><br />
lifting the design payload. The first examples entered<br />
service in May 1941, when a squadron <strong>of</strong> 18 was<br />
formed. Originally, the 'Giants' were towed either by<br />
a trio <strong>of</strong> Bf 110s (the so-called 'Troika-Schlepp') or<br />
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
by a single Ju 290, <strong>and</strong> later by the specially developed<br />
He l l 1Z 'Zwilling' ('Twin'), which was, in<br />
effect, two He Ills joined at the wing, outboard <strong>of</strong><br />
the engines, the junction being effected at a fifth<br />
engine, thus giving one outboard <strong>of</strong> each fuselage,<br />
<strong>and</strong> three in the wing area between them. Rockets <strong>of</strong><br />
various types were mounted to assist take-<strong>of</strong>f, <strong>and</strong><br />
there were plans to mount Argus pulse-jets to increase<br />
the aircraft's gliding range after release. The principal<br />
work <strong>of</strong> the 'Giant' was to transport material to the<br />
Eastern Front. It had a crew <strong>of</strong> two <strong>and</strong> was armed<br />
with four 7.92mm machine guns.<br />
Even before the prototype glider had taken to the<br />
air, work was in h<strong>and</strong> to transform it into a powered<br />
aircraft. This consisted mainly <strong>of</strong> strengthening its<br />
structure <strong>and</strong> contriving mountings for engines, initially<br />
four supercharged Gnome-Rhone 14Ns, which<br />
produced around 1150hp each. The prototype flew in<br />
April 1942 <strong>and</strong> since it was considered to be underpowered,<br />
the next aircraft had six engines, as did the<br />
aircraft <strong>of</strong> all subsequent productions. The Me 323, as<br />
it was designated, was something <strong>of</strong> a h<strong>and</strong>ful in the<br />
air, requiring two flight engineers to keep the engines<br />
balanced, <strong>and</strong> two gunners, with a total <strong>of</strong> five 7.92<br />
mm (later 13mm) machine guns, plus locations for 10<br />
MG34 infantry machine guns in the fuselage sides. It<br />
<strong>of</strong>ten needed the assistance <strong>of</strong> a tow-plane or rocket<br />
motors to get <strong>of</strong>f the ground, especially when heavily<br />
laden. It could carry around 16.25 tonnes (16 tons) <strong>of</strong><br />
payload, <strong>and</strong> had seats for 130 passengers (though<br />
many more were carried in evacuation operations, for<br />
Below: The heavily laden 'Gigant' - this is an Me 323 -<br />
proved sickeningly vulnerable to air-to-air attack. In April<br />
1943, no fewerthan 20 were shot down in one operation.<br />
47
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
GOTHA Go 244B<br />
Type: Transport<br />
Length: 15.80m (51.83ft)<br />
Span: 24.50m (80.38ft)<br />
Above: Like the Messerschmitt 'Gigant', the much smaller<br />
Gotha Go 242 also made the transition from glider to<br />
powered aircraft, becoming the Go 244 in the process.<br />
example). It first became operational in November<br />
1942, <strong>and</strong> was used to supply units <strong>of</strong> the Afrika<br />
Korps from a base in Sicily. Although it was largely<br />
successful, it did have its spectacular failures. On 22<br />
April 1943, no less than 21 Me 323s, ferrying petrol,<br />
were shot down in a single operation. Production<br />
continued until m id-1944, <strong>and</strong> around 200 examples<br />
were built in all.<br />
THE Ju 322'MAMMUT'<br />
The heavy glider Junkers produced was anything but<br />
conventional. Designed by Heinrich Hertel, it was<br />
simply an enormous flying wing, inside which it carried<br />
almost all <strong>of</strong> its payload, with a tall fin carried on<br />
a boom-like extension at the tail. In overall form it<br />
was somewhat reminiscent <strong>of</strong> the Junkers-G 38, a<br />
commercial passenger-carrier which made its first<br />
flight in 1929. On RLM instructions, the Ju 322 was<br />
constructed entirely from wood. With a span <strong>of</strong> 62m<br />
(203.5ft) <strong>and</strong> a length <strong>of</strong> 30.25m (99.25ft) it had a<br />
wing area <strong>of</strong> 925m 2 (9952 sq ft). The centre section <strong>of</strong><br />
the wing's straight leading edge housed a top-hinged<br />
loading door, with a glazed cupola to the port side <strong>of</strong><br />
it containing the flight deck. The upper surface <strong>of</strong> the<br />
wing was flat, <strong>and</strong> there was considerable dihedral on<br />
the lower surface. At the centre point, it was over 3m<br />
(9.8ft) thick. The prototype did fly in April 1941 but<br />
by that time its payload had been cut to half <strong>of</strong> the<br />
required 22.35 tonnes (22 tons) as the 'cabin 1 floor<br />
was simply not up to the task: a tracked vehicle actually<br />
broke through it during loading trials <strong>and</strong> the air-<br />
48<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 7800kg (17,196lb)<br />
Max speed: 290km/h (180mph) at 3000m (9800ft)<br />
Range: 740km (460 miles}<br />
Armament: 4 x 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns<br />
craft proved to be chronically unstable. It l<strong>and</strong>ed safely<br />
<strong>and</strong> was towed back to the airfield at Merseburg.<br />
Given a larger tail fin in an attempt to counter the<br />
instability, it made a few more test flights before the<br />
project was ab<strong>and</strong>oned on the orders <strong>of</strong> the RLM. It<br />
was then cut up for fuel, along with a completed second<br />
aircraft <strong>and</strong> the components <strong>of</strong> 98 more which<br />
were already in the process <strong>of</strong> construction.<br />
THE GOTHA Go 242/244<br />
Somewhat more practical than either <strong>of</strong> the giant gliders<br />
<strong>and</strong> more numerous by far was the Gotha Go 242.<br />
It was a shoulder-wing monoplane with a simple<br />
square-section fuselage culminating in twin booms<br />
linked by a cross-plane to form the tail. A loading<br />
ramp at the rear <strong>of</strong> the fuselage pod let down to allow<br />
loading <strong>and</strong> unloading <strong>of</strong> a small vehicle such as the<br />
amphibious Kübelwagen, or 21 fully equipped troops.<br />
Over 1500 were built, <strong>of</strong> which 133 were converted<br />
into Go 244s, fitted with two VOOhp Gnome-Rhone<br />
engines in forward extensions <strong>of</strong> the tailbooms.<br />
A few <strong>of</strong> the gliders were converted to allow them<br />
to alight on water; they carried a small catamaran<br />
assault boat with a 1200kg (26461b) explosive charge<br />
suspended between its hulls. The mission pr<strong>of</strong>ile<br />
envisaged for them saw the pilot setting down near an<br />
enemy ship <strong>and</strong> taking to the assault boat, setting <strong>of</strong>f<br />
in it at high speed toward the ship <strong>and</strong> locking the<br />
controls before baling out to be rescued later by seaplane<br />
or submarine. No such mission ever took place,<br />
though it is worth remembering that members <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Italian Navy's Xth MAS flotilla disabled the cruiser<br />
HMS York with explosive-packed motor boats at Suda<br />
Bay in Crete in March 1941, so the idea was not that<br />
far-fetched.
HYBRID AND COMPOSITE AIRCRAFT<br />
Engineers on both sides during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> gave<br />
considerable thought to the problems associated with<br />
guiding unmanned explosives-packed aircraft to a target.<br />
We shall see in Chapter Five how the USAAF<br />
used remotely controlled B-17s to complete the<br />
destruction <strong>of</strong> V weapons sites in France in 1944, but<br />
long before that, in 1940, the RLM had turned the<br />
problem over to DPS. The parameters the Institute<br />
was given included supporting parasite fighter aircraft<br />
<strong>and</strong> refuelling heavily loaded bombers in flight as<br />
well as guiding a flying bomb to its target zone, <strong>and</strong><br />
the first tentative solution was to tow one aircraft with<br />
another using either a flexible cable or a semi-rigid<br />
bar which could contain or support a fuel hose. There<br />
was a persistent belief that such a system had merit,<br />
<strong>and</strong> experiments with it continued until 1945, but by<br />
late 1941, one <strong>of</strong> the Institute's teams had begun to<br />
work on a means <strong>of</strong> mounting one aircraft on another,<br />
piggyback-style, <strong>and</strong> in January 1942 the 'Mistel'<br />
('Mistletoe') concept received <strong>of</strong>ficial approval.<br />
Soon, Junkers <strong>and</strong> autopilot-maker Patin were<br />
ordered to collaborate with DPS, <strong>and</strong> within little over<br />
a year, work had begun on assembling a prototype<br />
combination <strong>of</strong> Ju 88A-4 <strong>and</strong> Bf 109F-1.<br />
'MISTEL' 1<br />
DFS's first task had been to devise a suitable structure<br />
to co-locate the two aircraft so that the stresses acting<br />
on them would be transmitted between the two main<br />
spars, with coupling links which could be sundered<br />
either mechanically or explosively. The result was a<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> tripod struts, the apex <strong>of</strong> which hooked into<br />
plates on the underside <strong>of</strong> the Bf 109's wing roots, the<br />
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
two outer bases <strong>of</strong> each located on load-bearing plates<br />
which traversed the main spar, while the inner legs<br />
located on to it directly through the fuselage top. A<br />
single pole supported the Messerschmitt's tail <strong>and</strong><br />
kept the fuselage axes parallel. In later combinations,<br />
the fighter sat at a 15-degree nose-down angle.<br />
The steering <strong>and</strong> control system was located in the<br />
rear <strong>of</strong> the Junker's fuselage <strong>and</strong> consisted <strong>of</strong> a master<br />
compass, a steering compass <strong>and</strong> a three-axis<br />
autopilot from Patin. This apparatus was used to steer<br />
the combination in normal flight via servos <strong>and</strong> two<br />
simple thumb switches in the fighter's cockpit, one<br />
for rudder <strong>and</strong> ailerons, the other for elevators, with<br />
the fighter's controls remaining free. However, the<br />
two aircraft's control systems could be linked, <strong>and</strong><br />
thus operated from the fighter by the usual combination<br />
<strong>of</strong> stick <strong>and</strong> pedals (via servos, once again), at<br />
will. Either the bomber's two engines alone, or all<br />
three, could be used, depending on the speed <strong>and</strong><br />
range required, all fuel being supplied from the host<br />
aircraft. This was by no means the only modification<br />
needed to the bomber component - in fact, the aircraft<br />
were virtually gutted <strong>and</strong> rebuilt - but the amount <strong>of</strong><br />
work needed on the fighter was minimal. In order to<br />
accommodate the explosive 'warhead', the existing Ju<br />
88 nose section, including the glazed cupola which<br />
formed the cockpit cover, was removed entirely, <strong>and</strong> a<br />
solid bulkhead built up. The 3500kg (7720lb) hollow<br />
charge, with its distinctive proboscis-like extension<br />
Below: One <strong>of</strong> the earliest'Mistel' combinations (they<br />
were known un<strong>of</strong>ficially as 'Vater und Sohn' - father <strong>and</strong><br />
son) matched the Messerschmitt Bf 109F with the Junkers<br />
Ju 88A-4. Testing began in July 1943.
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
'MISTEL' 1<br />
Combination: Ju 88A-4 plus Bf 109F-4<br />
Powerplant (Ju 88): 2x Junkers Jumo 211J<br />
Powerplant (Bf 109): 1 x Daimler-Benz 601N<br />
Payload: 3500kg (7720lb) hollow charge;<br />
1000kg (2200lb) steel core<br />
Above: The operational 'Mistel' (this page) paired a fighter<br />
with a bomber whose nose was replaced with a warhead.<br />
Trainers (facing page) retained the st<strong>and</strong>ard nose.<br />
<strong>and</strong> 1000kg (22001b) steel core, could then be mounted<br />
on the bulkhead; for training missions, a st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
two-man nose section, stripped <strong>of</strong> all non-essentials,<br />
could be mounted in its place. Operationally, the procedure<br />
<strong>of</strong> launching the bomber component was<br />
straightforward. The pilot lined the combination up<br />
with the target in a shallow dive using his st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
reflecting gunsight, activated the automatic pilot, <strong>and</strong><br />
then broke free. Some elected to attempt to suppress<br />
local flak before setting out to return to <strong>their</strong> base.<br />
'MISTEL TARGETS REVEALED<br />
The first flight <strong>of</strong> the combination took place in July<br />
1943, <strong>and</strong> the testing procedure was successfully<br />
completed by October, by which time development<br />
work on the warhead was well advanced <strong>and</strong> 15 combinations<br />
had been ordered from Junkers, who were<br />
responsible for the conversion itself. By April 1944, a<br />
small unit, designated 2/KG101, <strong>and</strong> under the comm<strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>of</strong> Hauptmann Horst Rudat, had been set up <strong>and</strong><br />
had begun training, initially at the Junkers airfield at<br />
Norhausen, later at Kolberg on the Baltic coast. In<br />
mid-month, a staff paper outlined the targets for the<br />
unit (initially with just five pilots) as shipping in<br />
Scapa Flow, Gibraltar Roads <strong>and</strong> Leningrad, though<br />
the latter two were soon rejected as being impractically<br />
far away. Scapa Flow was chosen as the first<br />
objective, <strong>and</strong> the aircraft were to take <strong>of</strong>f from Grove<br />
in Denmark <strong>and</strong> cross the North Sea following a line<br />
<strong>of</strong> pre-positioned radio buoys. Planning had reached a<br />
fairly advanced stage when the Allies l<strong>and</strong>ed in Norm<strong>and</strong>y,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in mid-June, 2/KG101 moved to St<br />
Dizier, from where five 'Mistels' took <strong>of</strong>f just after<br />
dark on 24 June to attack shipping in the Baie de la
Seine. Four <strong>of</strong> the five aircraft involved were reported<br />
to have hit shipping targets, the fifth pilot jettisoning<br />
his host bomber after a mechanical failure.<br />
Over the course <strong>of</strong> the next four months, more<br />
units were trained in the operation <strong>of</strong> the combination<br />
<strong>and</strong> two more 'Mistel' raids took place, one on shipping<br />
in the English Channel, the other on Scapa Flow.<br />
Neither was successful. In the course <strong>of</strong> the latter,<br />
three aircraft crashed <strong>and</strong> the other two failed to find<br />
the target. By now, other combinations had been<br />
ordered which paired more recent models <strong>of</strong> the Ju 88<br />
with Fw 190s, <strong>and</strong> the factory at Bernberg was producing<br />
them from new - not re-cycled - aircraft.<br />
Attention turned east in November 1944, <strong>and</strong> training<br />
for Operation 'Eisenhammer' commenced, which was<br />
a campaign aimed at destroying electrical power stations<br />
in the Soviet Union. As the Allied armies closed<br />
in on the Reich from east <strong>and</strong> west, bridges in particular<br />
became important targets, <strong>and</strong> through the spring<br />
HYBRID AIRCRAFT AND GLIDERS<br />
'MISTEL'SI<br />
Combination: Junkers Ju 88A-4 plus<br />
Messerschmitt Bf 1Ü9F-4<br />
'MISTEL' S2<br />
Combination: Junkers Ju 88G-1 plus<br />
Focke-Wulf Fw190A-8<br />
'MISTEL S3c<br />
Combination: Junkers<br />
Ju 88G-10 plus Focke-<br />
Wulf Fw190A-8<br />
<strong>of</strong> 1945, it was against river crossings <strong>and</strong> bridgeheads<br />
that the 'Misteln' were used exclusively. The<br />
last operation took place on 16 April 1945.<br />
Many other combinations <strong>of</strong> aircraft types were<br />
projected (<strong>and</strong> in some cases built) for use in 'Mistel'<br />
operations, including Dornier Do 217K/DFS 228, for<br />
reconnaissance, the host aircraft acting as a mobile,<br />
high-altitude launch pad; Do 217/Fw 190, for<br />
pathfinder missions, the fighter protecting the host<br />
aircraft; <strong>and</strong> Ta 154/Fw 190, Me 262/Me 262, Ju<br />
287/Me 262 <strong>and</strong> Ju 268/He 162 combinations, all <strong>of</strong><br />
which were proposed for use against high-value targets,<br />
where approach speed might have been thought<br />
to make ä significant difference. By 1945, DFS was<br />
working on remote-control systems using both the<br />
radio link <strong>and</strong> the television guidance system specially<br />
devised for the Hs 293 guided bomb (see Chapter<br />
Seven). A test aircraft had been prepared, but it was<br />
destroyed by fire before trials could begin.
CHAPTER FOUR<br />
Rotary-win g<br />
<strong>Aircraft</strong><br />
Rotary-wing aircraft were first demonstrated as early as 1907, but it was 1936 before<br />
a satisfactory design for a helicopter was developed, in Germany. The Reich's<br />
scientists took the lead in this field, <strong>and</strong> by 1945 had developed operational rotarywing<br />
craft <strong>and</strong> demonstrated just how effective they could be in combat conditions.<br />
Rotary-wing aircraft can be divided into two basic<br />
types: autogiros <strong>and</strong> helicopters. Autogiros, such<br />
as that devised by Juan de la Cierva, derive <strong>their</strong> lift<br />
from <strong>their</strong> forward momentum, which is supplied by<br />
a conventionally positioned propeller, <strong>and</strong> <strong>their</strong> rotors<br />
are unpowered. They can take <strong>of</strong>f only with a run,<br />
they cannot fly except in the forwards direction, <strong>and</strong><br />
Above: The Flettner Fl 282 'Kolibri' was a fully operational<br />
helicopter despite its somewhat rudimentary appearance.<br />
Left: 'Dare anything' test pilot Hanna Reitsch shows <strong>of</strong>f<br />
the Focke Achgelis Fa 61 inside Berlin's Deutschl<strong>and</strong>halle.<br />
they cannot hover, but they can descend <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong><br />
almost vertically. Cierva made the first successful<br />
flight in an autogiro in January 1923, having found<br />
that it was necessary to articulate the blades where<br />
they joined the hub. For some years, autogiros seemed<br />
set to overshadow true helicopters, examples <strong>of</strong> which<br />
had been flying since 1907, but once Cierva's articulated<br />
rotor head arrangement was adopted, the latter<br />
surged to the fore once more, although work on autogiros<br />
continued, too. By the late 1930s, Germany had<br />
become the centre <strong>of</strong> helicopter development; in the<br />
period up to May 1945, almost 20 rotary-wings <strong>of</strong> different<br />
types were designed there, including autogiros,
girogliders <strong>and</strong> manned kites. The only work <strong>of</strong> any<br />
note undertaken elsewhere was that <strong>of</strong> the Russian<br />
emigre Igor Sikorsky in the United States. Sikorsky<br />
made his first experiments with rotary-wing flight in<br />
1909, but did not achieve comparative success until<br />
30 years later, though he was to become crucial to the<br />
type's development.<br />
THEFOCKEACHGELISFaGI<br />
In the early 1930s, Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Heinrich Karl Focke<br />
began building CiervaC.19 autogiros under licence in<br />
Germany - <strong>and</strong> separately from his partnership with<br />
Georg Wulf - <strong>and</strong> soon began experimenting with<br />
helicopters. Focke collaborated with Gerd Achgelis,<br />
who flew a Kurt Tank-designed Fw 44 'Steiglitz'<br />
('Goldfinch') in aerobatics displays (as did Ernst<br />
Udet), <strong>and</strong> soon produced a design for a twin-rotor<br />
helicopter, the Fa 61. This resembled the Cierva<br />
machine in that it was composed <strong>of</strong> a conventional<br />
fuselage with a front-mounted radial engine (a BMW<br />
Bramo Sh 14, <strong>of</strong> 160hp), but differed in having two<br />
outrigger-mounted three-bladed rotors, driven by<br />
shafts in centra-rotation to neutralise torque effect.<br />
There was a small conventionally placed propeller,<br />
but only to assist engine cooling. The tail had a fin<br />
<strong>and</strong> rudder <strong>and</strong> top-mounted stabilisers, <strong>and</strong> the craft<br />
sat on a tail-wheel undercarriage but with a nose<br />
wheel to prevent it from nosing over. The rotors had<br />
cyclic pitch control (that is, the angle <strong>of</strong> attack <strong>of</strong> the<br />
individual blades was varied during the rotation<br />
cycle) which gave longitudinal <strong>and</strong> directional control,<br />
<strong>and</strong> differential operation <strong>of</strong> the two cyclics gave<br />
Above: The Fa 223 'Drache' {'Kite') was the first truly<br />
viable transport helicopter. This example was constructed<br />
in Czechoslovakia after the war, from salvaged parts.<br />
lateral control by inducing asymmetric lift. The Fa 61<br />
made its maiden flight in the h<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> Ewald Rohlfs<br />
on 26 June 1936, lasting 28 seconds. But by the following<br />
year, Rohlfs was setting <strong>and</strong> breaking records<br />
regularly. On the anniversary <strong>of</strong> the maiden flight, he<br />
established a height record <strong>of</strong> 2440m (8000ft) <strong>and</strong> an<br />
endurance record <strong>of</strong> lhr:20min:49sec. The following<br />
day he set straight-line <strong>and</strong> curcuit distance records<br />
<strong>and</strong> a speed record <strong>of</strong> 122.553km/h (76.1 mph) over a<br />
20km (12.5 mile) course. Hanna Reitsch broke the<br />
straight-line record with a flight <strong>of</strong> almost 109km<br />
(67.7 miles) between Bremen <strong>and</strong> Berlin four months<br />
later, <strong>and</strong> in February the following year, she actually<br />
flew the helicopter inside the Deutschl<strong>and</strong>halle in<br />
Berlin to demonstrate its controllability. On 29<br />
January 1929, Karl Bode established a height record<br />
which was to remain unbroken for some time when he<br />
took the machine to 3427m (11,240.5ft).<br />
The Fa 61 was hardly a secret weapon. Indeed, it<br />
was developed very publicly <strong>and</strong> was really little<br />
more than a concept demonstrator, but there was<br />
much better to come both from Focke Achgelis <strong>and</strong><br />
from a competitor, Anton Flettner, during the course<br />
<strong>of</strong> the war. The Wehrmacht was quick to appreciate<br />
the operational possibilities the type opened up. In<br />
1938 Focke Achgelis began work on a genuine transport<br />
helicopter known originally as the Fa 266<br />
'Hornisse' ('Hornet'), <strong>and</strong> later as the Fa 223
'Drache' ('Kite'). The new aircraft was essentially an<br />
enlarged version <strong>of</strong> the Fa 61, with the same boomedout<br />
twin-rotor layout, but it was much more powerful,<br />
with a supercharged 650hp Bramo 323 Q3 'Fafnir'<br />
engine, <strong>and</strong> more flexible <strong>and</strong> easier to fly, thanks to<br />
the introduction <strong>of</strong> collective pitch control.<br />
Previously, ascent had been controlled by the throttle,<br />
a very hit-<strong>and</strong>-miss affair; with the introduction <strong>of</strong><br />
collective pitch control, the degree <strong>of</strong> lift was controlled<br />
by adjusting the pitch <strong>of</strong> the rotor blades, <strong>and</strong><br />
engine speed stayed constant. The fuselage, 12.25m<br />
(40ft) long, was fabricated from steel tubes <strong>and</strong> covered<br />
with fabric except on the engine compartment,<br />
where sheet metal was used. It was divided into four<br />
compartments: the cockpit, with seats for pilot <strong>and</strong><br />
observer; the load compartment, with a starboard-side<br />
door, where self-sealing fuel <strong>and</strong> oil tanks were also<br />
located; the engine compartment; <strong>and</strong> the tail section,<br />
which was a conventional fin <strong>and</strong> rudder with a topmounted<br />
stabiliser, adjustable for trim.<br />
UNUSUAL ENGINE MOUNTING<br />
The method <strong>of</strong> mounting the engine was somewhat<br />
bizarre. Both it <strong>and</strong> the gearbox were located in two<br />
large-diameter rings, which were attached to four longitudinal<br />
fuselage members by adjustable cables, with<br />
struts to prevent fore-<strong>and</strong>-aft movement. There was a<br />
gap in the fuselage covering at the forward end <strong>of</strong> the<br />
engine compartment, through which cooling air<br />
entered, <strong>and</strong> another at its after end, whence it<br />
escaped. The rotor blades were made from wooden<br />
ribs attached to a high-tensile steel tube, <strong>and</strong> covered<br />
with plywood <strong>and</strong> fabric. The rotor discs were<br />
inclined inwards by 4.5 degrees, <strong>and</strong> slightly forwards,<br />
<strong>and</strong> normal speed <strong>of</strong> rotation was 275rpm, a<br />
9.1:1 reduction from engine speed.<br />
The 'Drache' (it was also known as the 'Draken':<br />
'Dragon') could carry up to four passengers in the<br />
load compartment but during troop manoeuvres in<br />
1944, it carried 12 fully equipped soldiers, the other<br />
eight travelling outside on tractor seats on the outriggers.<br />
Its total payload capacity was around 1.27<br />
tonnes (1.25 tons). A Fieseier 'Storch' aircraft <strong>and</strong> a<br />
Volkswagen car were lifted in demonstrations, <strong>and</strong><br />
small field pieces were transported during army<br />
manoeuvres; large loads were slung from a winch on<br />
a load-bearing beam via a port in the aircraft's floor.<br />
The Fa 266 prototype was completed at the end <strong>of</strong><br />
1939 <strong>and</strong>, by now redesignated as the Fa 223, made<br />
its first free flight in August 1940 after more than 100<br />
hours <strong>of</strong> static <strong>and</strong> tethered hovering trials. Karl Bode<br />
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT<br />
flew it to the RLM test centre at Rechlin in October<br />
1940, <strong>and</strong> set a batch <strong>of</strong> new records: a speed <strong>of</strong><br />
182km/h (113mph); a vertical rate <strong>of</strong> climb <strong>of</strong> 528m<br />
(1732ft) per minute; <strong>and</strong> an altitude <strong>of</strong> 7252m<br />
(23,295ft) where normal operational limits were<br />
120km/h (74.5mph) <strong>and</strong> 4880m (16,010ft). The RLM<br />
promptly ordered 30 for evaluation in the anti-submarine,<br />
reconnaissance, rescue, training, <strong>and</strong> transport<br />
roles <strong>and</strong> it was decided before series production<br />
commenced to build st<strong>and</strong>ardised aircraft which<br />
would be equipped according to the requirements <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>their</strong> mission.<br />
The first prototype, -VI, was wrecked on 5<br />
February 1941 after having made 115 flights, when a<br />
power failure occurred while it was in a low hover. In<br />
June 1942, the second <strong>and</strong> third prototypes, along<br />
with seven pre-production machines <strong>and</strong> much <strong>of</strong> the<br />
tooling, were destroyed in an air raid. Production was<br />
then moved from Bremen to Laupheim in southern<br />
Germany but did not restart until February 1943.<br />
More aircraft were destroyed when the new factory<br />
was bombed in its turn, in July 1944, <strong>and</strong> as a result,<br />
the number <strong>of</strong> Fa 223s completed was probably no<br />
more than 12. Three were still in operational service<br />
at the end <strong>of</strong> the war; one was destroyed by its pilot<br />
<strong>and</strong> two were seized by the Americans. One <strong>of</strong> them<br />
was subsequently flown to Engl<strong>and</strong> by Helmut<br />
Gersenhauer, the Luftwaffe's most experienced helicopter<br />
pilot, <strong>and</strong> was flown for around 170 hours in<br />
trials before crashing from a height <strong>of</strong> 18.3m (60ft).<br />
After the war, development <strong>of</strong> the Fa 223 continued in<br />
France (with Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Focke's assistance) <strong>and</strong> in<br />
Czechoslovakia, where two were constructed from<br />
salvaged parts. That the Fa 223 was not more widely<br />
produced, when all concerned agreed that it was a<br />
useful addition to the Luftwaffe's catalogue <strong>of</strong> aircraft,<br />
is underst<strong>and</strong>able only within the terms <strong>of</strong> the<br />
struggle for the allocation <strong>of</strong> resources going on within<br />
the Third Reich at the time. Clearly, it had no<br />
champion sufficiently powerful to push it high<br />
enough up the list <strong>of</strong> priorities. Had -V12 not broken<br />
down when transporting the captured Italian dictator,<br />
Benito Mussolini, from the hotel on the Gran Sasso in<br />
September 1943 when he was rescued by Otto<br />
Skorzeny, perhaps things might have been different!<br />
THE Fa 225<br />
The Luftwaffe's interest in gliders dated back to the<br />
time before Germany was permitted an air force,<br />
when the only means she had <strong>of</strong> training pilots was to<br />
set up gliding clubs <strong>and</strong> schools. As well as acting as
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: The Fa 330 was not a true helicopter but an<br />
unpowered girokite; it was designed to be towed behind<br />
a submarine as an observation platform.<br />
a valuable means <strong>of</strong> instructing personnel, gliders<br />
were to become important in themselves in a number<br />
<strong>of</strong> roles. The first operational use <strong>of</strong> a glider to transport<br />
troops <strong>and</strong> equipment directly into combat<br />
occurred on 10 May 1940, when Luftwaffe paratroops<br />
siezed <strong>and</strong> held the Belgian frontier fortress <strong>of</strong><br />
Eben-Emael after l<strong>and</strong>ing on it in DPS 230 gliders.<br />
This was to be the most effective type in German service<br />
during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, but it could be employed<br />
only where there was a suitable, fairly large, l<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
site. Focke Achgelis suggested improving on this by<br />
substituting a three-bladed rotor unit from an Fa 223<br />
for the wings <strong>of</strong> a DFS 230, producing what was in<br />
effect an externally powered autogiro or giroglider,<br />
which, when cast loose, would simply autorotate to<br />
the ground at a very steep angle <strong>of</strong> approach, <strong>and</strong><br />
would thus be able to l<strong>and</strong> in an area not much larger<br />
than itself. It was to be towed behind the Luftwaffe's<br />
maid-<strong>of</strong>-all-work, the Ju 52, <strong>and</strong> in tests carried out<br />
during 1943, it was found to be practicable to l<strong>and</strong> it<br />
<strong>and</strong> come to a halt within 18.3m (60ft). Though the<br />
Fa 225, as the hybrid glider was known, worked well<br />
enough, by the time it was ready to go into production,<br />
the Wehrmacht's operational requirements had<br />
changed <strong>and</strong> the project was shelved.<br />
^R<br />
THE Fa 330'BACHSTELZE'<br />
The Fa 225 was not the only unpowered rotary-wing<br />
aircraft Focke Achgelis was to design. Early in 1942,<br />
the company was asked to devise a simple single-seat<br />
girokite to be towed behind a submarine, from which<br />
an observer would be able to monitor a much wider<br />
area than would a look-out stationed on the boat<br />
itself. The result, the Fa 330 'Bachstelze' ('Water<br />
Wagtail'), was simple in the extreme: two steel tubes,<br />
the shorter, which supported the rotor assembly,<br />
being set at right-angles to the longer, which held the<br />
simple rudder assembly <strong>and</strong> the pilot's seat <strong>and</strong> rudimentary<br />
controls, by means <strong>of</strong> which he could tilt the<br />
rotor head (which gave longitudinal <strong>and</strong> lateral control)<br />
<strong>and</strong> turn the rudder to change direction. The<br />
pitch <strong>of</strong> the rotor blades could be adjusted, but not in<br />
flight. Coarse pitch gave the best flying performance,<br />
but made launching rather more difficult. The Fa 330<br />
was launched by setting the rotor turning (by h<strong>and</strong> if<br />
there was a wind; by means <strong>of</strong> a rope wound around<br />
a drum in the rotor head if there was not) <strong>and</strong> then<br />
pushing the whole machine backwards. Recovery<br />
was by means <strong>of</strong> a winch under normal circumstances,<br />
but in an emergency, the pilot could release<br />
the rotor, which deployed a parachute from its<br />
stowage behind the pilot's seat as it flew <strong>of</strong>f. The<br />
winch held 150m (492ft) <strong>of</strong> towing cable, which permitted<br />
the kite to fly at an altitude <strong>of</strong> 120m (395ft);<br />
from there, the horizon was 4()km (25 miles) away, a<br />
marked improvement over the 8km (5 miles) horizon<br />
from the boat itself. Without its pilot, the girokite<br />
weighed 82kg (1801b), <strong>and</strong> could be assembled <strong>and</strong><br />
dismantled in a matter <strong>of</strong> minutes. Minimum speed<br />
required to stay al<strong>of</strong>t was 27km/h (17mph).<br />
Something like 200 Fa 330s were produced by<br />
Weser-Flugzeugbau <strong>and</strong> were deployed aboard Type<br />
IX ocean-going U-boats, but little is known about<br />
<strong>their</strong> operational history beyond the fact that two or<br />
three crewmembers from each boat were taught how<br />
to fly them in the wind tunnel at Chalais-Meudon<br />
near Paris. They were said to be very easy indeed to<br />
operate, <strong>and</strong> would fly quite happily h<strong>and</strong>s-<strong>of</strong>f for<br />
short periods, but were unpopular with <strong>their</strong> pilots for<br />
reasons <strong>of</strong> self-preservation.<br />
AMBITIOUS FOCKE DESIGNS<br />
Focke Achgelis also produced two very much more<br />
ambitious designs, one <strong>of</strong> them, the Fa 269, for a convertiplane,<br />
which would have l<strong>and</strong>ed <strong>and</strong> taken <strong>of</strong>f<br />
vertically but then turned the shaft carrying the rotors
through 90 degrees to bring them to the position <strong>of</strong><br />
pusher propellers. Such an arrangement (but employing<br />
more efficient tractor propellers) was not to be<br />
successfully introduced until Boeing-Vertol perfected<br />
the V-22 Osprey in the late 1980s. The Fa 269 was<br />
really little more than a flight <strong>of</strong> fancy, <strong>and</strong> it is to be<br />
doubted if the technology <strong>of</strong> the day could actually<br />
have realised it. The Fa 284 was much more practical,<br />
being, in effect, a stretched version <strong>of</strong> the Fa 223, with<br />
a fuselage which was largely <strong>of</strong> lattice construction<br />
<strong>and</strong> twin 1600hp BMW 801 engines. Tt was designed<br />
to carry heavy loads underslung, in exactly the same<br />
way as its 1970s equivalent, the Sikorsky S-60 (CH-<br />
54B) 'Flying Crane', did. Some parts are said to have<br />
been manufactured before the project was cancelled<br />
in late 1943 <strong>and</strong> plans were drawn up to produce a<br />
twin Fa 223, essentially two aircraft joined, in-line, by<br />
a short fuselage section. This section is known to have<br />
been produced, but the complete aircraft was not.<br />
By far the most adventurous <strong>of</strong> Pr<strong>of</strong>essor Focke's<br />
designs was presented under the auspices <strong>of</strong> Focke-<br />
Wulf rather than Focke Achgelis. Known as the<br />
'Triebflügel' ('Thrustwing'), this was a tail-sitting<br />
VTOL (Vertical Take-Off <strong>and</strong> L<strong>and</strong>ing) aircraft which<br />
derived its lift from three wings which rotated around<br />
the fuselage just aft <strong>of</strong> the cockpit, under the power <strong>of</strong><br />
tip-mounted ramjets giving about 840kg (18501b) <strong>of</strong><br />
thrust, the wings being brought up to operating speed<br />
by three jettisonable rockets. In flight, the wings<br />
would be rotated around <strong>their</strong> individual axes until<br />
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT<br />
they became conventional aer<strong>of</strong>oils as the aircraft<br />
itself rotated until its axis was horizontal rather than<br />
vertical. No real development work was ever done on<br />
the concept, <strong>and</strong> the viability <strong>of</strong> the design is a matter<br />
<strong>of</strong> speculation, but three tail-sitting VTOL aircraft<br />
were built post-war, two in the USA <strong>and</strong> one in<br />
France. The American designs, from Lockheed <strong>and</strong><br />
Convair, were somewhat more conventional, in that<br />
they used fixed wings <strong>and</strong> contra-rotating propellers<br />
in the nose, while the French SNECMA 'Coleopter'<br />
was powered by a tail-mounted turbojet <strong>and</strong> had an<br />
annular wing, control being achieved through four<br />
swivelling fins. All three aircraft flew after a fashion,<br />
but all projects were eventually cancelled. The objective<br />
has since been achieved by vectoring the thrust <strong>of</strong><br />
a turbojet in a more-or-less conventional airframe.<br />
ANTON FLETTNER<br />
Having turned his attention to the problems <strong>of</strong> rotarywing<br />
flight in 1930, Anton Flettner first produced a<br />
helicopter with two 30hp Anzani piston engines<br />
mounted on the ends <strong>of</strong> two rotors, each turning a<br />
two-bladed propeller. While this arrangement eliminated<br />
the problems associated with torque (which the<br />
Focke Achgelis designs overcame by means <strong>of</strong> two<br />
contrarotating rotor sets, <strong>and</strong> which other designers,<br />
Below: The Fl 282 was the most sophisticated <strong>of</strong> all<br />
German helicopters <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. This later version -<br />
captured by US forces - even had protection for the pilot.
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT<br />
notably Sikorsky, counteracted by means <strong>of</strong> a powered<br />
tail rotor), it was only marginally successful in<br />
other ways. When it was destroyed during tethered<br />
testing, it was not rebuilt. Flettner next built a twoseat<br />
cabin autogiro for the Kriegsmarine (German<br />
Navy) but the single example <strong>of</strong> the Fl 184 caught fire<br />
in flight <strong>and</strong> was also destroyed.<br />
THE Fl 185 AND Fl 265<br />
Clearly, Anton Flettner was still searching for a valid<br />
way forward, for his next design, designated the Fl<br />
185, was substantially different again, almost a cross<br />
between a helicopter <strong>and</strong> an autogiro, its 140hp<br />
Siemens-Halke engine being linked to a single rotor<br />
<strong>and</strong> two variable-pitch pusher propellers located on<br />
outriggers. For vertical take-<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong>ing, the aircraft<br />
functioned as a helicopter, the majority <strong>of</strong> the<br />
power going to the rotor, <strong>and</strong> the two conventional<br />
propellers, providing thrust in opposite directions,<br />
only counteracting the torque. For forward flight, the<br />
rotor autorotated <strong>and</strong> the two propellers received all<br />
the power <strong>and</strong> gave forward thrust. The Fl 185 flew<br />
only a few times before Flettner ab<strong>and</strong>oned it <strong>and</strong><br />
turned his attention to a new design using synchronised<br />
intermeshing contra-rotating twin rotors (like<br />
those <strong>of</strong> the Kaman H-43 'Huskie' <strong>of</strong> the 1960s) with<br />
differential collective pitch control.<br />
The single-seat Fl 265 was very similar in appearance<br />
to the Fl 185, with its front-mounted radial<br />
engine with cowl <strong>and</strong> cooling fan, enclosed cockpit<br />
Below: The Fl 282 was ordered in 1944 after sea trials<br />
aboard the cruiser Köln had shown it could be flown even<br />
in adverse conditions. Only Allied bombing prevented the<br />
aircraft going into service.<br />
R8<br />
FLETTNER Fl 282 V21<br />
Type: Single-seat opencockpit<br />
helicopter<br />
Length: 6.56m (21.52ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight:<br />
1000kg (2200lb)<br />
Max speed: 150km/h<br />
(93mph) at sea level<br />
Range: 170km (106 miies)<br />
Ceiling: 3290m (10,800ft)<br />
Armament: None<br />
<strong>and</strong> stubby tailfin. However, gone were the Fl 185's<br />
outriggers <strong>and</strong> propellers, <strong>and</strong> the rotor head assembly,<br />
with its paired, inclined shafts, each with a twobladed<br />
rotor, was much more complex. The design<br />
was completed in 1937, <strong>and</strong> the following year, the<br />
Kriegsmarine ordered six aircraft for evaluation purposes.<br />
The prototype made its maiden flight in May<br />
1939, <strong>and</strong> was later destroyed when its rotor blades<br />
struck each other in flight.<br />
Other Fl 265s were used extensively for operational<br />
trials with naval units - cruisers in the main, but<br />
also submarines - in the Baltic <strong>and</strong> the Mediterranean<br />
with considerable success, <strong>and</strong> completely validated<br />
the concept <strong>of</strong> deploying VTOL aircraft with warships.<br />
<strong>Aircraft</strong> also operated with army units, both in<br />
the reconnaissance <strong>and</strong> logistical roles, <strong>and</strong> a<br />
Luftwaffe trial involving a Bf 109 <strong>and</strong> an Fw 190 fitted<br />
with camera guns demonstrated that the helicopter<br />
was very difficult to shoot down. The two fighters,<br />
amongst the best in the world, we may recall, attacked<br />
the Fl 265 for 20 minutes but tailed to score a single<br />
hit. The outcome <strong>of</strong> the various trials was that Flettner<br />
was ordered to proceed with volume production. In<br />
fact, he had already proceeded with the design <strong>of</strong> an<br />
updated version, the two-seat (some prototypes were<br />
single-seat) Fl 282 'Kolibri' ('Hummingbird'), <strong>and</strong> it<br />
was this aircraft which went into manufacture.<br />
THE Fl 282'KOLIBRI'<br />
The most important modification Flettner made to the<br />
design <strong>of</strong> the new aircraft was to re-locate the engine<br />
behind the pilot's seat, which gave him <strong>and</strong> the<br />
observer a much-enlarged field <strong>of</strong> view. The drive was<br />
taken <strong>of</strong>f the front <strong>of</strong> the crankshaft through a reduction<br />
gearbox <strong>and</strong> transmitted up <strong>and</strong> back through a
universally jointed drive shaft <strong>and</strong> a cross-shaft connecting<br />
the two rotor shafts, which were set at an<br />
inclusive angle <strong>of</strong> 24 degrees, <strong>and</strong> inclined forward<br />
by 6 degrees. The rotor blades were mounted so that<br />
they were parallel when they were at 45 degrees to<br />
the aircraft's centreline. The fin <strong>and</strong> rudder were<br />
much larger than in previous Flettner designs, steering<br />
being accomplished by a combination <strong>of</strong> rudder<br />
movement <strong>and</strong> differential collective pitch control.<br />
The 'Kolibri' proved to be very satisfactory<br />
indeed, despite a pronounced vibration period as the<br />
engine was run-up, with a maximum speed in level<br />
flight <strong>of</strong> 150km/h (93mph), a vertical rate <strong>of</strong> climb <strong>of</strong><br />
91.5m/min (300ft/min), a hover ceiling <strong>of</strong> 300m<br />
(985ft), <strong>and</strong> a service ceiling <strong>of</strong> 3290m (10,800ft). Its<br />
range, with just the pilot <strong>and</strong> maximum fuel aboard,<br />
was 300km (185 miles). Some 50 pilots were trained<br />
to fly it, most <strong>of</strong> them by Flettner's test pilot, Hans<br />
Fuisting. It was extremely manoeuvrable <strong>and</strong> very<br />
stable <strong>and</strong> at forward speeds in excess <strong>of</strong> 60km/h<br />
(37mph) could be flown h<strong>and</strong>s-<strong>of</strong>f once the controls<br />
were balanced.<br />
SEA TRIALS<br />
From 1942, trials at sea aboard the cruiser Köln<br />
demonstrated that the aircraft was usable even in very<br />
poor weather conditions, <strong>and</strong> by the following year,<br />
20 were in service with the Kriegsmarine in the<br />
Mediterranean <strong>and</strong> the Aegean. In 1944, an order for<br />
1000 Fl 282s was placed with BMW, which began<br />
tooling up for production at its Munich <strong>and</strong> Eisenach<br />
plants, but before manufacture could begin, both they<br />
ROTARY-WING AIRCRAFT<br />
Above: An American airman examines the tiny rotor-tip<br />
jets which Friedrich von Doblh<strong>of</strong>f proposed to use to<br />
eliminate the effects <strong>of</strong> engine torque in his WNF 342.<br />
<strong>and</strong> the Flettner works at Johannisthal were very<br />
badly damaged by Allied bombing. Anton Flettner<br />
went on to design a 20-seat passenger helicopter, the<br />
Fl 339, but never got beyond the development stage.<br />
THEDOBLHOFF/WNF342<br />
Friedrich von Doblh<strong>of</strong>f is rather less well-known than<br />
the other helicopter pioneers in the Third Reich, but<br />
the machines which he designed, <strong>and</strong> which were<br />
built by Wiener Neustadter Flugzeugwerke in the<br />
Vienna suburbs, represented yet another innovatory<br />
approach to the solution <strong>of</strong> the torque problem.<br />
Doblh<strong>of</strong>f used small rotor-tip jets to drive the blades.<br />
A combustible air/fuel mixture was fed to small combustion<br />
chambers in the rotor tips using a compressor<br />
driven by a conventional piston engine. The mixture<br />
travelled by way <strong>of</strong> the rotor hub <strong>and</strong> passages in the<br />
rotors themselves, before being ignited. The piston<br />
engine also drove a small fan which blew air over the<br />
tail surfaces for the purpose <strong>of</strong> steering. Only four<br />
prototypes were built; the first three had fixed-pitch<br />
blades, <strong>and</strong> were only ever used in static/tethered<br />
tests, but the fourth had a most ingenious (<strong>and</strong> very<br />
complex) arrangement which allowed collective pitch<br />
control. The last prototype was behaving well in its<br />
trials <strong>and</strong> had been flown at speeds <strong>of</strong> up to 45km/h<br />
(28mph) when the programme was halted by the<br />
arrival <strong>of</strong> Soviet forces in 1945.
CHAPTER FIVE<br />
Surface-to-Surface<br />
Missiles<br />
Until the outbreak <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, rocketry was hardly a science at all; until then it<br />
had consisted <strong>of</strong> really nothing more than a few scattered <strong>and</strong> sporadic attempts to<br />
shoot small projectiles straight up into the sky, virtually for the sake <strong>of</strong> it. All that<br />
changed when it became clear that the rocket had potential as a long-range weapon<br />
<strong>of</strong> war, <strong>and</strong> nowhere was this potential better understood than in Germany, where<br />
much <strong>of</strong> the pioneering work on rockets had been done anyway.<br />
Most famous <strong>of</strong> the German secret weapons <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> - <strong>and</strong> by far the most effective -<br />
were the surface-to-surface missiles used to bombard<br />
the United Kingdom <strong>and</strong> targets on the mainl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
Europe, particularly the port <strong>of</strong> Antwerp, from late<br />
June 1944. As well as the so-called 'Vengeance<br />
<strong>Weapons</strong>', the VI <strong>and</strong> V2, there were other types<br />
(though only one was operational, <strong>and</strong> then only in a<br />
Above: The Fi 103 R-the manned VI.<br />
Left: This A4 - or V2 - was captured by British forces <strong>and</strong><br />
fired by British scientists near Cuxhaven in 1945.<br />
very limited sense), designed to supply data on flight<br />
characteristics <strong>and</strong> to act as concept vehicles for operational<br />
types. Not surprisingly, given the success <strong>of</strong><br />
the V2 ballistic missile, there were plans to develop it<br />
still further, though none passed the prototype stage,<br />
<strong>and</strong> most existed only on paper. Many <strong>of</strong> the scientists<br />
<strong>and</strong> engineers who worked on Germany's rocketry<br />
programme went on after the war to become prime<br />
movers in the rocketry <strong>and</strong> space exploration programmes<br />
<strong>of</strong> both the United States <strong>of</strong> America <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Soviet Union, <strong>and</strong> were thus instrumental in both<br />
putting man into space <strong>and</strong> establishing a technology<br />
which has become a mainstay <strong>of</strong> modern civilisation.
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
THEFIESELERFM03-THEV1<br />
The Vergeltungswaffe l (the revenge, or retaliation,<br />
weapon), or V1, had a plethora <strong>of</strong> names. To the Luftwaffe,<br />
it was the Fliegerabwehrkanonezielgerät 76<br />
(Flakzielgerät 76, or just FZG 76), but that was a<br />
cover-name: Fliegerabwehrkanonezielgerät means<br />
'anti-aircraft gun aiming device' or conceivably 'antiaircraft<br />
gun target device'. Its <strong>of</strong>ficial codename was<br />
'Kirschkern' ('Cherrystone') <strong>and</strong> it was also known as<br />
'Krahe' ('Crow'); while to the RLM it was the Fi 103;<br />
<strong>and</strong> to the airframe manufacturers, Fieseler, it began<br />
life as P. 35. To the British public it was the Buzzbomb,<br />
the P-Plane or the Doodlebug, while the RAF<br />
knew it as 'Diver'. In effect a first-generation cruise<br />
missile, it was an unmanned air-breathing jet aircraft<br />
with an explosive warhead <strong>and</strong> a simple guidance/targeting<br />
device, <strong>and</strong> to relate its history from the very<br />
start, we need to go back to 1928.<br />
Paul Schmidt worked primarily in the associated<br />
fields <strong>of</strong> fluid dynamics <strong>and</strong> aerodynamics, but in<br />
1928 he began experimenting with a simple form <strong>of</strong><br />
thrust engine known as a pulse-jet. In essence, a<br />
pulse-jet is a tubular combustion chamber with a<br />
matrix <strong>of</strong> small, rectangular, spring-loaded flapvalves<br />
at the front, into which a suitable fuel (it need<br />
be no more exotic than petrol, <strong>and</strong> low-octane petrol,<br />
at that) is injected. The device must be accelerated by<br />
Above: The infamous V1 self-propelled guided bomb. The<br />
proto-cruise missile carried a warhead <strong>of</strong> 830kg (1832lb)<br />
<strong>of</strong> amatol to targets up to about 240km (150 miles) away.<br />
Below: The Argus pulse-jet - small flaps in the aperture<br />
were forced open against a spring by air pressure <strong>and</strong><br />
forced shut by fuel exploding in the jet pipe behind.
some external means to a critical threshold velocity,<br />
something <strong>of</strong> the order <strong>of</strong> 300km/h (I86mph), before<br />
it will work, though there is the option to supply it<br />
with air under sufficient pressure <strong>and</strong> in sufficient<br />
quantity by means <strong>of</strong> a blower system. As the device<br />
travels forward, air is forced past the flap-valves <strong>and</strong><br />
into the tube; the act <strong>of</strong> opening the flap-valves opens<br />
a second valve, which admits a quantity <strong>of</strong> petrol<br />
under pressure into the tube to form an explosive mixture<br />
(in exactly the same way that a petrol engine's<br />
fuel injection system does), <strong>and</strong> also activates a sparking<br />
plug. The primary result <strong>of</strong> the explosion is to<br />
blow shut the flap-valves, closing <strong>of</strong>f both air flow<br />
<strong>and</strong> petrol flow, <strong>and</strong> this has the secondary effect <strong>of</strong><br />
turning aimless explosion into directed thrust. As the<br />
pressure within the tube is reduced to below that <strong>of</strong><br />
the air trying to rush into the engine from the front,<br />
the flap-valves are forced open again, <strong>and</strong> the whole<br />
process is repeated, <strong>and</strong> so on, many times per second;<br />
for example, the Argus 109-014 engine used in<br />
the operational Vis cycled 47 times per second.<br />
CHEAP AND SIMPLE<br />
In addition to its inability to self-start, the pulse-jet<br />
motor has other limiting factors: it works less effectively<br />
as the ambient air pressure drops, <strong>and</strong> functions<br />
poorly at much above 3000m (9800 feet); it operates<br />
at a fixed speed, though the dimensions <strong>of</strong> the combustion<br />
chamber can be varied to modify it; <strong>and</strong> the<br />
flap-valves are liable to burn out after a relatively<br />
short time. But it has several things in its favour, too:<br />
firstly, it works; secondly, it is simple to manufacture;<br />
<strong>and</strong> thirdly, it costs very little.<br />
All in all, it was just the thing to power a shortrange<br />
surface-to-surface missile, <strong>and</strong> this was one <strong>of</strong><br />
the uses Schmidt suggested for it after failing to interest<br />
anyone in a vertical take-<strong>of</strong>f aircraft powered by it.<br />
He submitted a design to the RLM in 1934. Initially it<br />
was poorly received, but after a number <strong>of</strong> rather<br />
more eminent scientists, including Wernher von<br />
Braun, took up Schmidt's case, both the RLM <strong>and</strong> the<br />
Heereswaffenamt (HWA - the German Army's<br />
weapons development <strong>and</strong> procurement <strong>of</strong>fice) took<br />
more notice. At last Schmidt got development funds,<br />
even if not in great amounts. By 1940, Schmidt's<br />
pulse-jets were giving over 500kg (1 lOOIb) <strong>of</strong> static<br />
thrust, but the RLM had started to look elsewhere for<br />
alternative developers. It looked, in fact, to the rather<br />
more prestigious Argus Motoren-Gesellschaft, where<br />
Dr Fritz Gosslau <strong>and</strong> his team began to develop a<br />
pulse-jet engine from first principles. They were not<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The flying bombs were delivered to the launch<br />
sites dismantled, but it was a simple process to assemble<br />
them. Here the VTs wings are being introduced over the<br />
tubular main spar.<br />
permitted to see Schmidt's engine until March 1940;<br />
they adopted his valve system in part, but mostly<br />
stuck with <strong>their</strong> own design. By the end <strong>of</strong> the year,<br />
they had produced a small engine <strong>of</strong> 150kg (3301b)<br />
static thrust, <strong>and</strong> on 30 April 1941 this engine made<br />
its first flight, beneath a Gotha Go 145 two-seater<br />
biplane trainer. During the summer, small cargo gliders<br />
made flights under pulse-jet power alone, which<br />
validated the concept, but it was a further year before<br />
the RLM took the next step, <strong>and</strong> on 19 June 1942,
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: V1s were launched on ramps by steam catapults.<br />
When they reached around 400km/h (250mph), <strong>their</strong> own<br />
powerplants took over <strong>and</strong> the guidance system took them<br />
in a gentle climb to <strong>their</strong> cruising altitude.<br />
ordered Gerhard Fieseler to begin developing an airframe<br />
for a flying bomb. In the meantime Argus carried<br />
on developing the powerplant, Walter began work<br />
on a catapult launching system, <strong>and</strong> Siemens set out<br />
to produce a guidance system using an existing<br />
autopilot as a basis.<br />
The airframe was actually the work <strong>of</strong> Robert<br />
Lusser who, we may recall, was involved in the original<br />
P. 1065 project at Messerschmitt, <strong>and</strong> Willy<br />
Fiedler. Development took 18 months, <strong>and</strong> it was<br />
early December <strong>of</strong> 1942 before the first (unpowered)<br />
example was launched from an Fw 200 'Condor' over<br />
the test range at Peenemiinde-West, to be followed by<br />
the first catapult launch on Christmas Eve. In one<br />
form or another, a total <strong>of</strong> perhaps 350 missiles were<br />
expended in the course <strong>of</strong> testing. At the start, testing<br />
did not proceed smoothly. The situation was complicated<br />
by the necessity to test all the components<br />
together, which made fault isolation difficult, but<br />
64<br />
eventually the design <strong>of</strong> the air intake <strong>and</strong> the fuelsupply<br />
system were identified as the seats <strong>of</strong> the worst<br />
problems, <strong>and</strong> when they were re-thought, the bomb<br />
flew much more reliably. However, it flew considerably<br />
more slowly than had been envisioned, at around<br />
600km/h (370mph), which made it vulnerable to<br />
interception by existing fighter aircraft. Consequently,<br />
there was a non-stop programme to improve the Vl's<br />
performance, both by upping the output <strong>of</strong> the Argus<br />
109-014 motor (by injecting nitrous oxide into the<br />
combustion chamber, for example) <strong>and</strong> by replacing it<br />
with a more powerful unit such as the 109-044 or the<br />
Porsche 109-005 turbojet - both <strong>of</strong> which produced<br />
500kg (1 lOOlb) <strong>of</strong> static thrust - or by an unspecified<br />
ramjet. By the war's end, experimental models were<br />
flying at almost 800km/h (500mph). By then, they<br />
were faced with much faster interceptors, such as the<br />
jet-powered Gloster 'Meteor' which scored its first<br />
combat victory on 4 August 1944 when it destroyed a<br />
VI by tipping it over with its wingtip to destabilise it.<br />
This was not as risky a manoeuvre as one might think,<br />
<strong>and</strong> was deemed preferable to shooting the flying<br />
bombs down at close range, with the attendant risk <strong>of</strong><br />
damage to one's own aircraft. In fact, the Vis were a<br />
much easier target for guns on the ground than they<br />
were for aircraft, since they flew straight <strong>and</strong> level <strong>and</strong><br />
at a fixed speed; more were destroyed by this means<br />
than by any other.<br />
DESIGN MODIFICATIONS<br />
Not entirely surprisingly, the guidance system <strong>and</strong> its<br />
installation proved to be problematic, too. The first<br />
difficulty actually showed up before the Fi 103 airframe<br />
was completed, <strong>and</strong> involved the positioning <strong>of</strong><br />
the engine vis-ä-vis the fuselage. Tests carried out<br />
with engines mounted on Do 17 <strong>and</strong> Ju 88 aircraft<br />
showed that the pulse action produced considerable<br />
vibration, particularly if the exhaust stream passed<br />
over the fuselage, <strong>and</strong> so the design was modified to<br />
move the entire engine aft so that it overhung the tail<br />
by some considerable extent. Close attention had to<br />
be paid to the mountings, <strong>and</strong> eventually a system was<br />
adopted which combined a pivoted yoke at the front<br />
secured with a single pinned lug to the tail fin, both <strong>of</strong><br />
the mountings in rubber bushes. However, there were<br />
still problems with vibration. The guidance system<br />
itself relied on a gyroscope for control in all three<br />
axes, linked to a master compass set to the desired<br />
heading before launch for azimuth control, <strong>and</strong> an<br />
aneroid barometer for altitude control. Corrections<br />
were transmitted to the servo-motors acting on the
udder <strong>and</strong> elevators by means <strong>of</strong> compressed air. The<br />
distance flown was computed by means <strong>of</strong> an air-log<br />
driven by a small airscrew in the nosecone, <strong>and</strong> when<br />
a predetermined figure had been reached, a pair <strong>of</strong><br />
detonators exploded, locking the elevator <strong>and</strong> rudder<br />
<strong>and</strong> deploying two spoilers, forcing the aircraft into a<br />
dive. This somewhat complicated procedure was necessary<br />
because the temperature in the jet pipe was<br />
high enough, even after just a few seconds' running,<br />
to sustain ignition alone, as there was no critical timing<br />
to worry about, <strong>and</strong> so the rather simpler method<br />
<strong>of</strong> cutting the current to the spark plug would have<br />
had no effect. It would perhaps have been possible to<br />
cut the fuel supply instead, though since the fuel system<br />
was pressurised this was not entirely predictable<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
either, <strong>and</strong> in any event, it was actually more desirable<br />
for the vehicle to go into a powered dive. For some<br />
time the fuel did tend to cut out as the VI tipped over.<br />
This was not a feature, but a fault which was eventually<br />
corrected.<br />
The bomb was equipped with three different types<br />
<strong>of</strong> fuze: an electrical impact fuze, powered by an onboard<br />
battery <strong>and</strong> with a resistor/condenser circuit<br />
which held enough charge to detonate the device if<br />
the battery connection was severed on impact; an<br />
Below: Since V1s flew at a constant speed, at constant<br />
height <strong>and</strong> on a straight course, it was relatively simple<br />
for anti-aircraft gunners to establish a box barrage,<br />
particularly at night when the jet flare was obvious.<br />
65
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The preferred way to destroy the bombs from the<br />
air was to tip them <strong>of</strong>f course - not as risky a business as<br />
one might suppose. The aircraft pictured in this gun<br />
camera shot is, from its wingform, a Spitfire.<br />
electro-mechanical all-ways fuze with a trembler<br />
switch; <strong>and</strong> a mechanical (clockwork) delayed fuze.<br />
The impact fuze had three actuators: one in the nose<br />
<strong>and</strong> one in the belly (both <strong>of</strong> which functioned by<br />
pressure); <strong>and</strong> an inertial switch in the fuze itself. The<br />
fuzing system was so good that <strong>of</strong> the first 2500 to hit<br />
the UK, only four failed to go <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
The launch system was less problematical than<br />
other elements, <strong>and</strong> employed a simple steam catapult,<br />
the steam being generated by the reaction <strong>of</strong> the<br />
same T-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Z-St<strong>of</strong>f (basically hydrogen peroxide<br />
<strong>and</strong> calcium or potassium permanganate, as we<br />
might recall) used in rocket motors. The catapult track<br />
was a slotted tube 42m (138ft) long, inclined at an<br />
angle <strong>of</strong> six <strong>and</strong> a half degrees (later, a track half that<br />
length was employed), on a concrete <strong>and</strong> steel bed,<br />
within which a dumbell-shaped free piston ran. The<br />
piston incorporated a fin which protruded through the<br />
slot in the tube, <strong>and</strong> engaged with a simple trolley on<br />
66<br />
which the missile sat. The slot was sealed by a tubular<br />
strip which trailed behind the piston to be forced<br />
into the slot by the pressure <strong>of</strong> the steam. The fuel to<br />
generate the steam was contained in tanks on a trolley,<br />
which also held the forged steel steam generation<br />
chamber, secured to the rear <strong>of</strong> the launch tube by a<br />
bayonet fitting. Alongside the rear <strong>of</strong> the ramp, there<br />
was a starter unit which contained the equipment necessary<br />
to get the pulse-jet operating.<br />
LAUNCHING THE V1<br />
The launch procedure was straightforward. The pulse<br />
jet was fired up <strong>and</strong> allowed to run for seven seconds,<br />
bringing it up to the correct operating temperature.<br />
The valve on a large bottle <strong>of</strong> compressed air was then<br />
opened by remote control, forcing 60 litres (13.2 gallons)<br />
<strong>of</strong> T-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> 5 litres (1.09 gallons) <strong>of</strong> Z-St<strong>of</strong>f<br />
into the steam generation vessel. Their reaction generated<br />
a large volume <strong>of</strong> super-heated steam, <strong>and</strong> as<br />
soon as the pressure in the chamber built up sufficiently,<br />
a restraining bolt sheared, whereupon the piston<br />
was free to travel up the tube, carrying launch<br />
trolley <strong>and</strong> missile with it. By the time it reached the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the track - little more than half a second later,
having been accelerated at a rate <strong>of</strong> around 16 g - the<br />
whole assembly was travelling at around 400km/h<br />
(25()mph) <strong>and</strong> the pulse-jet had started to run independently.<br />
The piston was literally fired out <strong>of</strong> the<br />
tube <strong>and</strong> fell to earth some distance away (along with<br />
the launch trolley) to be recovered later, while the flying<br />
bomb began its climb to operational height at a<br />
rate <strong>of</strong> about 150m (492ft) per minute. The guidance<br />
system corrected its course as it went, <strong>and</strong> the aneroid<br />
capsule reset the elevators for level flight when the<br />
pre-determined altitude was reached.<br />
The Fieseler Fi 103 A-1, the original <strong>and</strong> technically<br />
most common version <strong>of</strong> the flying bomb, was<br />
about 8m (26ft) long. Its wingspan was <strong>of</strong> around 5m<br />
(17ft) although there were two different wings produced<br />
in slightly different form <strong>and</strong> dimensions, <strong>and</strong><br />
it had a maximum fuselage diameter <strong>of</strong> 0.84m<br />
(2.75ft); the warhead comprised 830kg (18321b) <strong>of</strong><br />
Trialen (amatol), which was sometimes supplemented<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE SSILES<br />
by incendiary bombs. Provision was made to replace<br />
the explosive with gas, though this never happened in<br />
practice. A full load <strong>of</strong> 75-80 octane fuel added<br />
515kg (11331b) to the all-up launch weight total <strong>of</strong><br />
2180kg (48061b). It had an autonomous range <strong>of</strong><br />
240km (150 miles) at a maximum speed <strong>of</strong> 645km/h<br />
(400mph), <strong>and</strong> an operational ceiling <strong>of</strong> 3000m<br />
(9800ft). It was fabricated from sheet steel pressings,<br />
with an aluminium nosecone <strong>and</strong> sheet-steel wings<br />
around a single tubular steel spar. The emphasis was<br />
on keeping costs to a minimum, <strong>and</strong> little effort was<br />
put into reducing weight by employing more exotic<br />
materials. In 1945, the Fi 103 F-l was produced.<br />
Basically similar to the A-l, its warhead contained<br />
Below: Very few V1 s were recovered intact after they had<br />
been brought down, but some failed to explode <strong>and</strong> gave<br />
up <strong>their</strong> secrets instead. Here, RAF personnel are seen<br />
examining one in a bean field, somewhere in Kent.<br />
67
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
FIESELER Fi 103 (V1) STANDARD<br />
MODEL<br />
Type: Cruise missile<br />
Length: 8.32m (27.3ft)<br />
Span: 5.30m (17.39ft)<br />
Launch weight: 2180kg (4806lb)<br />
Above: The Fieseler Fi 103, to give the V1 its <strong>of</strong>ficial name,<br />
was unleashed in earnest against Engl<strong>and</strong> in Operation<br />
Boxroom, which began in June 1944.<br />
436kg (9621b) <strong>of</strong> amatol, <strong>and</strong> its fuel tanks were<br />
enlarged from 568 litres (125 gallons) to 756 litres<br />
(166 gallons), increasing range to 370km (230 miles).<br />
THE V1 CAMPAIGN BEGINS<br />
The first operational Vis were launched in the early<br />
hours <strong>of</strong> 13 June 1944. Just 10 missiles were<br />
deployed: four crashed immediately; two fell into the<br />
sea; <strong>and</strong> four hit the Home Counties (one in Sussex,<br />
one near Sevenoaks in Kent, one in the south-eastern<br />
suburbs <strong>of</strong> London, <strong>and</strong> one in Bethnal Green, north<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Thames). Two days later, Unternehmen<br />
Rumpelkammer (Operation Boxroom) commenced in<br />
earnest, <strong>and</strong> between 2200 hours on 15 June <strong>and</strong> 12<br />
noon the following day, 244 Vis were launched, most<br />
<strong>of</strong> them against London <strong>and</strong> some against Southampton<br />
which was the re-supply base for the invasion<br />
force, even then trying to fight its way out <strong>of</strong> the<br />
beachhead in Norm<strong>and</strong>y. More than half <strong>of</strong> the flying<br />
bombs launched (144 in all) crossed the English<br />
coast, <strong>and</strong> 34 were shot down by anti-aircraft guns<br />
<strong>and</strong> fighter aircraft.<br />
This campaign from launch sites in the Pas de<br />
Calais continued until the end <strong>of</strong> August, by which<br />
time Allied troops were closing in. The Luftwaffe's<br />
Flakregiment 155 (W), its name a cover like the FZG<br />
76 designation, had been set up in August 1943 under<br />
the comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Colonel Max Wachtel, <strong>and</strong> it packed<br />
up <strong>and</strong> moved to Holl<strong>and</strong> with the intention <strong>of</strong> concentrating<br />
activities on Antwerp. By that time, it had<br />
launched 9017 missiles, 6725 <strong>of</strong> which had reached<br />
Engl<strong>and</strong>. As many as 2340 l<strong>and</strong>ed in the Greater Lon-<br />
68<br />
Max speed (later models): 800km/h (497mph)<br />
Range: 240km (150 miles)<br />
<strong>War</strong>head: 830kg (1832lb) <strong>of</strong> amatol<br />
don area, the vast majority <strong>of</strong> them exploding as<br />
planned. Other reports suggest that 8892 missiles<br />
were launched with the UK as <strong>their</strong> target during the<br />
entire war, <strong>and</strong> still others put the total at fractionally<br />
over 10,000. As early as 7 July, the ground launches<br />
had been supplemented by air launches from Heinkel<br />
He 111 bombers <strong>of</strong> HI/KG 3, based at Gilze Rijen in<br />
Holl<strong>and</strong>, which carried one missile each on a pylon<br />
located just outboard <strong>of</strong> the starboard wing root, <strong>and</strong><br />
launched it at an altitude <strong>of</strong> 450m (1500ft) over the<br />
North Sea. By the end <strong>of</strong> August, over 400 missiles<br />
had been deployed in this way, mostly against London,<br />
but some against Southampton <strong>and</strong> Bristol.<br />
Air-launched operations against targets in the<br />
United Kingdom recommenced in mid-September in<br />
a campaign which lasted until mid-January. A total <strong>of</strong><br />
around 1200 missiles were launched (some <strong>of</strong> them at<br />
targets as far north as Manchester, though only one<br />
reached that particular objective), but only around 20<br />
per cent <strong>of</strong> them got through to populated areas <strong>and</strong><br />
just 66 l<strong>and</strong>ed on London, still the prime target in the<br />
UK. During the same period, around 1600 missiles<br />
were air-launched against Antwerp <strong>and</strong> Brussels. In<br />
all, they cost the Luftwaffe 80 aircraft shot down.<br />
On 3 March 1945, a new campaign against London<br />
started from sites in Holl<strong>and</strong>, using F-l missiles with<br />
greater fuel capacity <strong>and</strong> a smaller warhead, but this<br />
was <strong>of</strong> only very limited success. The last flying<br />
bomb l<strong>and</strong>ed in London on 29 March. In all, a total <strong>of</strong><br />
2419 Vis had hit London <strong>and</strong> 2448 had struck<br />
Antwerp (though these were not the only targets, <strong>of</strong><br />
course), representing roughly 25 per cent <strong>of</strong> those<br />
launched. It is estimated that VI rockets were responsible<br />
for the deaths <strong>of</strong> perhaps 12,000 people. Official<br />
figures put the death toll in the UK at 6184, with<br />
17,981 injured. Altogether, around 34,000 Vis were
produced, by Fieseler, Volkswagen (initially with a<br />
marked lack <strong>of</strong> success), <strong>and</strong> 'Mittelwerke', the<br />
underground factory at Nordhausen in the Harz<br />
mountains staffed almost exclusively by slave labour.<br />
The V1 was very cost-effective, even if it was at best<br />
only 20 per cent effective. Estimates <strong>of</strong> the unit cost<br />
vary, but around 5000 Reichsmarks seems reasonable<br />
at a time when the st<strong>and</strong>ard German infantry rifle, the<br />
Mauser 98K, was costing RM56, <strong>and</strong> a PzKpfw IV<br />
tank over RM 100,000.<br />
YOKOSUKA MXY7 'OHKA'<br />
Type: Single-seat suicide missile<br />
Length: 6.066m (19.9ft)<br />
Span: 5.12m (16.8ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 2140kg (4718lb)<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The Reichenberg IV, seen here, was the<br />
operational version <strong>of</strong> the manned flying bomb, with a<br />
warhead but without the l<strong>and</strong>ing skid on its belly or flaps<br />
on the trailing surface <strong>of</strong> the wings. None was ever flown<br />
in combat.<br />
Below: The Japanese Navy also worked on a manned<br />
flying bomb, the Yokosuka MXY7 'Ohka'. Simpler than the<br />
Reichenberg, it had rocket boosters to accelerate its<br />
gliding attack <strong>and</strong> only rudimentary flight controls.<br />
Max speed: 649km/h (403mph) at 3500m<br />
(11,482ft)<br />
Range: 37km (23 miles)<br />
<strong>War</strong>head: 1200kg (2646lb) <strong>of</strong> explosives
Left: A complete VI weighed some 2.032 tonnes (2 tons),<br />
<strong>and</strong> it was customary to manh<strong>and</strong>le it into position at the<br />
foot <strong>of</strong> the ramp on its launch cradle.<br />
THE SELBSTOPFERMÄNNER BOMBER<br />
Desperate times breed desperate men, <strong>and</strong> both<br />
remaining arms <strong>of</strong> the Axis began to consider formalised<br />
suicide tactics, perhaps from as early as late<br />
1943. The most famous <strong>of</strong> these was the Japanese<br />
Kamikaze (Divine Wind) campaign against ships <strong>of</strong><br />
the Royal <strong>and</strong> US Navies from the time <strong>of</strong> the Battle<br />
<strong>of</strong> Leyte Gulf (23-26 October 1944), but Germany,<br />
too, made preparations for the use <strong>of</strong> such tactics, the<br />
most significant <strong>of</strong> those involving a manned version<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Fi 103 flying bomb. This was actually the first<br />
vehicle considered, but it was rejected in favour <strong>of</strong> a<br />
glider version <strong>of</strong> the Me 328, while a unit equipped<br />
with Fw 190s, known as 'Komm<strong>and</strong>o Lange 1 , or the<br />
'Staffel Leonidas', was formed to begin training for<br />
missions which involved the pilot placing his aircraft<br />
- carrying the maximum possible bombload - in a<br />
steep dive aimed at the target before baling out <strong>and</strong><br />
taking to his parachute. Eventually, the Me 328 project<br />
lost momentum, <strong>and</strong> it became clear that the<br />
chances <strong>of</strong> penetrating anti-aircraft defences in a Fw<br />
190 carrying a sufficient bombload to be effective<br />
were extremely slim.<br />
Attention returned to the use <strong>of</strong> the Fi 103. Designs<br />
for four different versions were worked up by DPS,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Henschel converted four st<strong>and</strong>ard VI missiles.<br />
The operational codename for the project was<br />
'Reichenberg', <strong>and</strong> the four versions <strong>of</strong> the aircraft<br />
received 'R' prefixes, I through to IV. The Fi 103 R-I<br />
was a single-seater with ballast in place <strong>of</strong> its warhead;<br />
it had skids <strong>and</strong> l<strong>and</strong>ing flaps, but no motor: it<br />
was constructed for the test programme. The R-<strong>II</strong> was<br />
similar, but with a second cockpit in the nose section.<br />
The R-<strong>II</strong>I was designed for advanced training, <strong>and</strong><br />
was essentially the R-I equipped with an engine. The<br />
R-IV was the operational model, with no l<strong>and</strong>ing aids<br />
but with ailerons, <strong>and</strong> with the warhead reinstated.<br />
There are suggestions that the warhead might have<br />
been replaced with a cannon <strong>and</strong> the aircraft used as<br />
an interceptor, too. About 175 are thought to have<br />
been built in all.<br />
The test pilots for the development programme<br />
were Heinz Kensche <strong>and</strong> the ubiquitous Hanna<br />
Reitsch, <strong>and</strong> they reported favourably on the aircraft's<br />
performance in flight (though there were hair-raising<br />
moments, apparently) but were not so enthusiastic<br />
about l<strong>and</strong>ing it. One can imagine that l<strong>and</strong>ing was<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
hardly a consideration as these aircraft were never<br />
meant to be l<strong>and</strong>ed after use, except on training<br />
flights. The intention was for the pilot to aim the aircraft<br />
at its target <strong>and</strong> then bale out, but frankly, the<br />
arrangements made for him (or her) to exit the aircraft<br />
were somewhat cynical. The cockpit was located well<br />
aft - aft <strong>of</strong> the trailing edge <strong>of</strong> the wings - <strong>and</strong> almost<br />
underneath the motor's air intake, against which it<br />
jammed before it had been opened through the 45<br />
degrees necessary to jettison it. Even if the pilot succeeded<br />
in freeing it, he would have had little chance<br />
<strong>of</strong> levering himself out <strong>of</strong> the cockpit in a steep dive<br />
at speeds in excess <strong>of</strong> 1000km/h (62()mph) without<br />
being seriously injured, if not killed. Although thous<strong>and</strong>s<br />
volunteered for the Selbstopfermänner bomber<br />
programme <strong>and</strong> 70 were accepted for training, they<br />
were never asked to go into action, so in the final analysis,<br />
it is not important. Japanese pilots who flew the<br />
'Ohka' flying bombs in the latter stages <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Kamikaze campaign were treated more honestly: they<br />
were sealed into <strong>their</strong> aircraft <strong>and</strong> knew they had no<br />
chance <strong>of</strong> getting out. The efficacy <strong>of</strong> the Japanese<br />
Kamikaze campaign gives some indication <strong>of</strong> the sort<br />
<strong>of</strong> results they were expected to achieve. Between 21<br />
February <strong>and</strong> 15 August 1945,17 ships were sunk <strong>and</strong><br />
198 damaged for the loss <strong>of</strong> 930 aircraft, both flying<br />
bombs <strong>and</strong> escorts.<br />
THE'AGGREGAT'ROCKETS<br />
In the aftermath <strong>of</strong> the defeat <strong>of</strong> 1918, Germany was<br />
severely limited in terms <strong>of</strong> the weapons she could<br />
possess. As we noted earlier, there was a large-scale<br />
campaign to circumvent the restrictions imposed by<br />
the Treaty <strong>of</strong> Versailles by establishing development<br />
programmes abroad, but there were other avenues<br />
open, too; for instance, as early as 1929, the<br />
Heereswaffenamt began to look into rocketry as an<br />
alternative to long-range artillery, <strong>and</strong> set up a trials<br />
<strong>and</strong> proving ground about 32km (20 miles) south <strong>of</strong><br />
Berlin at Kummersdorf. Captain Walter Dornberger, a<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>essional soldier who had been sent by the Army<br />
to the School <strong>of</strong> Technology at Charlottenberg, <strong>and</strong><br />
had earned an MA in ballistics there, was put in<br />
charge <strong>of</strong> the project in 1930 under the HWA's head,<br />
Karl Becker, himself very enthusiastic.<br />
In 1927, a group <strong>of</strong> keen amateurs, centred on Hermann<br />
Oberth, author <strong>of</strong> Die Rakete zu den Planetenräumen<br />
(The Rocket into Interplanetary Space), published<br />
in 1923, formed the Society for Space Travel,<br />
the Verein für Raumschiffahrt. They began to experiment<br />
with rocket motors, <strong>and</strong> were funded initially by
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Fritz von Opel (who, we may recall, had commissioned<br />
a rocket-powered glider from Alex<strong>and</strong>er Lippisch,<br />
<strong>and</strong> had also built a rocket-assisted car, the<br />
RAK 2), <strong>and</strong> funded latterly by a 10,000-franc prize<br />
Oberth won in 1929 for his book Wege zur Raumschiffahrt<br />
(Ways to Spaceflight). In 1930, a promising<br />
student named Wernher von Braun joined the Society<br />
<strong>and</strong> the following year, they successfully flew a small<br />
rocket fuelled by liquid oxygen <strong>and</strong> petrol. By then,<br />
funds were running short, but fortuitously, the Society<br />
was approached by Dornberger, who arranged for<br />
them to receive a series <strong>of</strong> small grants. In 1932, von<br />
Braun, just graduated from the Berlin Technical Institute<br />
with a BSc in mechanical engineering, went to<br />
72<br />
Above: The launch pad at the Peenemünde research<br />
station, deep in the pine forests <strong>of</strong> the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Usedom<br />
on the remote Baltic coast. All the test flights <strong>of</strong> the A4<br />
were initiated from this site.<br />
work at Kummersdorf <strong>and</strong> by December 1934, his<br />
group had launched two liquid-oxygen- <strong>and</strong> alcoholfuelled<br />
rockets, designated A2, which had reached<br />
altitudes <strong>of</strong> over 2500m (8200ft).<br />
In 1935, work started on a new rocket, the A3,<br />
which weighed 750kg (16551b) <strong>and</strong> stood 7.6m (25ft)<br />
tall. It, too, was fuelled by A-St<strong>of</strong>f (liquid oxygen, at<br />
-183 degrees C) <strong>and</strong> M-St<strong>of</strong>f (methyl alcohol, or<br />
methanol), but this time the motor produced 1500kg
Right: A technician is photographed making last-minute<br />
adjustments to the guidance system prior to launching an<br />
A4 rocket, which has been brought to the vertical position<br />
by the mobile erector.<br />
(33001b) <strong>of</strong> thrust for 45 seconds instead <strong>of</strong> the 300kg<br />
(6601b) for 16 seconds <strong>of</strong> the A2. More important,<br />
perhaps, was the new method <strong>of</strong> stabilisation which<br />
von Braun's team devised. Whereas the A2 was stabilised<br />
by its centre section being spun by an electric<br />
motor to create a gyroscopic effect, the A3 would<br />
have small molybdenum 'rudders' (more accurately,<br />
vanes) acting to deflect a portion <strong>of</strong> the exhaust<br />
stream under the control <strong>of</strong> gyroscopes. The A3 also<br />
had four rudimentary tail fins, though these hardly<br />
extended outside the diameter <strong>of</strong> the body. Its payload<br />
consisted <strong>of</strong> an instrumentation package, <strong>and</strong> it was to<br />
return to earth on a parachute. The first A3 launch<br />
took place on 6 December 1937 from the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong><br />
Greifswalder Oie, <strong>of</strong>f the Baltic coast. The new stabilisers<br />
worked, but other elements <strong>of</strong> the design, in<br />
particular the overall aerodynamics, were faulty, <strong>and</strong><br />
the rocket was never entirely a success, although three<br />
examples were launched.<br />
THEMOVETOPEENEMUNDE<br />
By then, the research group was fast outgrowing the<br />
facilities at Kummersdorf. The A2s were actually<br />
launched from the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Borkum, <strong>of</strong>f the mouth <strong>of</strong><br />
the River Ems in the North Sea. In early 1936, the<br />
HWA <strong>and</strong> the RLM joined forces to purchase a large<br />
area <strong>of</strong> suitable l<strong>and</strong>, an isolated peninsula around the<br />
village <strong>of</strong> Peenemünde on the isl<strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> Usedom, <strong>of</strong>f<br />
the Baltic coast close to the present-day border with<br />
Pol<strong>and</strong>. They also bought the adjacent Greifswalder<br />
Oie, <strong>and</strong> it was to this location that both moved <strong>their</strong><br />
rocket development programmes. The Army were<br />
located to the east <strong>of</strong> the site, in an area known as<br />
Heeresversuchsanstalt-Peenemünde (HVP), <strong>and</strong><br />
referred to as Electromechanische Werke (EMW) as a<br />
cover, where Dornberger was appointed Head <strong>of</strong><br />
Weapon Test Section 11, with von Braun as his Technical<br />
Director. It was here that the first successful ballistic<br />
missiles the world had ever seen were developed<br />
<strong>and</strong> tested, <strong>and</strong> the name Peenemünde soon took on a<br />
new significance.<br />
After the failure <strong>of</strong> the A3 to live up to expectations,<br />
development work on the A4, which was<br />
always intended to be a military rocket, was halted.<br />
Instead, von Braun turned to the design <strong>of</strong> another<br />
research rocket, the A5, somewhat larger than the A3<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
but with the same motor. The main difference<br />
between these <strong>and</strong> the earlier design was to be in the<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> its flight path, because now the requirement<br />
was not simply to send a rocket straight up into the<br />
atmosphere, but to launch it at a terrestrial target hundreds<br />
<strong>of</strong> kilometres away, <strong>and</strong> for that, a sophisticated<br />
guidance package was required. In the case <strong>of</strong> a small<br />
device like the V1, basic direction was simply a matter<br />
<strong>of</strong> aligning the launch ramp with the azimuth <strong>of</strong><br />
the target, <strong>and</strong> then relying on a gyrocompass to apply<br />
small corrections. But steering the ballistic missile to<br />
its target would be quite another matter, since it would<br />
have to be launched vertically, <strong>and</strong> then tipped over in<br />
the precise direction <strong>of</strong> the target to an angle <strong>of</strong> 41<br />
degrees from the horizontal <strong>and</strong> maintained there.<br />
Range was determined by the length <strong>of</strong> the burn, <strong>and</strong><br />
that meant that propellant cut-<strong>of</strong>f had to be precise<br />
<strong>and</strong> instantaneous. Cut-<strong>of</strong>f was actuated initially by a<br />
radio signal from the ground, <strong>and</strong> was the only external<br />
factor applied after the launch sequence had been<br />
initiated (<strong>and</strong> this, too, being later automated). With-<br />
Below: The RAF launched a major raid on Peenmünde on<br />
the night <strong>of</strong> 17/18 August 1943, <strong>and</strong> caused considerable<br />
damage, particularly to accommodation blocks. Both<br />
slave labourers <strong>and</strong> research staff died in the raid.<br />
74<br />
out going too far into the intricacies <strong>of</strong> the matter, to<br />
achieve a proper degree <strong>of</strong> directional stability in a<br />
ballistic missile it is necessary to be able to control its<br />
movement in three axes: pitch (to achieve <strong>and</strong> maintain<br />
the proper angle <strong>of</strong> climb); yaw (side-to-side<br />
movement, to correct the heading); <strong>and</strong> spin, which is<br />
a natural tendency <strong>of</strong> a cylindrical body in motion, but<br />
which makes controlling pitch <strong>and</strong> yaw by means <strong>of</strong><br />
rudders almost impossible, <strong>and</strong> which must be<br />
damped out. To make matters worse, the characteristics<br />
<strong>of</strong> the missile - in particular the all-important<br />
centre <strong>of</strong> gravity - change as its fuel is consumed, <strong>and</strong><br />
its flight characteristics change no less drastically as it<br />
climbs into <strong>and</strong> through the upper atmosphere <strong>and</strong><br />
then descends again on its parabolic course.<br />
EPOCH-MAKING RESEARCH<br />
All in all, the problems <strong>of</strong> guidance were the most<br />
complex Wernher von Braun's team had to face, <strong>and</strong><br />
they solved them definitively <strong>and</strong>, we may add, with<br />
nothing more sophisticated than slide-rules <strong>and</strong><br />
mechanical calculators; it is perhaps significant that<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the first simple computers were produced to<br />
solve ballistic problems. The team used three-axis<br />
gyroscopes controlling small rudders built into the<br />
tips <strong>of</strong> the fins, supplemented by deflector vanes,
made now <strong>of</strong> graphite rather than molybdenum, in the<br />
exhaust stream during the first few seconds <strong>of</strong> flight,<br />
when the airflow over the conventional control surfaces<br />
was insufficient. The team's work on the remote<br />
north coast <strong>of</strong> Germany under increasingly difficult<br />
conditions between 1938 <strong>and</strong> 1945 was actually to<br />
change civilisation itself - if not in the sense that at<br />
least some <strong>of</strong> them intended - by enabling man to<br />
leave earth for the first time.<br />
During 1938, work proceeded on the new design,<br />
<strong>and</strong> by the year's end, four unguided launches had<br />
been made to a distance <strong>of</strong> 17km (10.6 miles), <strong>and</strong> an<br />
altitude <strong>of</strong> 11,000m (36,000ft). Work on the guidance<br />
system continued. By October 1939, a month or so<br />
into <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, the guidance <strong>and</strong> control package<br />
- in fact, every essential component <strong>of</strong> the A4 except<br />
its warhead <strong>and</strong> motor - had been assembled in the<br />
rocket, <strong>and</strong> test firing commenced. The results were<br />
successful, <strong>and</strong> in early 1940 Dornberger thankfully<br />
ordered work on the A4 to begin once again, with a<br />
production target date <strong>of</strong> mid-1943. He bargained<br />
without Adolf Hitler.<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: Many <strong>of</strong> the A4s captured intact found <strong>their</strong> way<br />
to the United States (as did most <strong>of</strong> the development<br />
team). This A4 is being readied for launch, probably at the<br />
White S<strong>and</strong>s Proving Ground, New Mexico.<br />
By July 1940, it seemed that Hitler's war would be<br />
over by the year's end, with virtually all <strong>of</strong> Europe<br />
under his control, the Soviet Union pacified by treaty,<br />
<strong>and</strong> Britain isolated. It was then that the Führer gave<br />
the fateful order to cancel any research project which<br />
could not be guaranteed to show results within 12<br />
months. One <strong>of</strong> the first casualties was Dornberger's<br />
war rocket. Or so, at any rate, went the theory. In fact,<br />
Dornberger managed to evade the directive by continuing<br />
to work on individual components, including the<br />
25,000kg- (55,1251b-) thrust engine, <strong>and</strong> was also<br />
able to continue the A5 programme, which was still<br />
supplying much-needed data on flight characteristics.<br />
In fact, test firings <strong>of</strong> the new motor, the brainchild<br />
<strong>of</strong> Dr Walter Thiel, had already begun. These tests had<br />
revealed that there would be additional problems in its<br />
operation, relating purely to scale, particularly in
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
76
cooling it <strong>and</strong> supplying it with sufficient fuel. The<br />
calculations had shown that to obtain 'the required<br />
thrust, it would be necessary to deliver almost 125kg<br />
(2751b) <strong>of</strong> fuel to the combustion chamber every second.<br />
The earlier rockets had required very much less,<br />
<strong>and</strong> it had been sufficient to pressurise the propellant<br />
tanks with nitrogen. But now it was necessary to<br />
devise a means <strong>of</strong> actually pumping the fuel <strong>and</strong> the<br />
liquid oxygen from tank to burner. The method chosen<br />
was a steam turbine, <strong>and</strong> the means <strong>of</strong> generating<br />
the steam was the same as that used in the Vl's launch<br />
catapult: the near-explosive decomposition <strong>of</strong> T-St<strong>of</strong>f<br />
into super-heated steam when it came into contact<br />
with the catalyst Z-St<strong>of</strong>f. The turbine thus powered<br />
produced around 675hp <strong>and</strong> ran at 500()rpm.<br />
TO THE MARGINS OF SPACE<br />
Thanks to a long catalogue <strong>of</strong> setbacks (<strong>and</strong>, we may<br />
imagine, the need to keep the project at least partially<br />
hidden from those who would have preferred more<br />
resources to have gone into <strong>their</strong> own laboratories),<br />
the h<strong>and</strong>-built prototype A4 was not ready for static<br />
testing until 18 March 1942, <strong>and</strong> even then, it exploded.<br />
Von Braun's team built another one, which<br />
exploded too, but eventually they managed to make<br />
enough progress to dare a test flight. Scheduled for 13<br />
June, it was a failure. Von Braun returned if not to the<br />
drawing board, at least to the workshop, <strong>and</strong> readied<br />
another prototype. After a second failed test launch,<br />
on 16 August, happily for von Braun <strong>and</strong> Dornberger,<br />
the third attempt on 3 October proved more successful.<br />
The missile flew over 200km (125 miles) to an<br />
altitude <strong>of</strong> 85km (53 miles) <strong>and</strong> thus into the ionosphere<br />
at the margins <strong>of</strong> space; it returned to earth<br />
within 4km (2.5 miles) <strong>of</strong> its intended target. Now all<br />
that remained was to sell the concept as a weapon <strong>of</strong><br />
war; by late 1942 that was not much <strong>of</strong> a problem.<br />
Hitler endorsed the V2 programme, as it soon<br />
became known, on 22 December, It was held up by<br />
shortages <strong>of</strong> strategic materials <strong>and</strong> by the RAF,<br />
which sent a mixed force <strong>of</strong> 596 aircraft to drop 1828<br />
tonnes (1800 tons) <strong>of</strong> bombs on Peenemünde on the<br />
night <strong>of</strong> 17 August, losing 40 aircraft <strong>and</strong> killing<br />
around 800 people on the ground - most <strong>of</strong> them conscripted<br />
Polish labourers, but including Dr Thiel -<br />
<strong>and</strong> setting back the programme by perhaps two<br />
Left: Some captured A4 rockets were launched from sites<br />
in Germany into the German test target zones. Here,<br />
British personnel prepare to launch a V2 using the original<br />
equipment, including the 'Meillerwagen' erector/launcher.<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
months. It had seemed for a while that the Armysponsored<br />
A4 would lose out to the Air Force's Fi<br />
103, but a demonstration <strong>of</strong> both before high-ranking<br />
government <strong>of</strong>ficials in May 1943 came at a bad time<br />
for the latter, <strong>and</strong> the A4 programme survived. As the<br />
war situation worsened that year, Hitler became more<br />
<strong>and</strong> more interested in the A4, eventually giving it the<br />
highest priority, allocating production facilities at one<br />
<strong>of</strong> Henschel's factories <strong>and</strong> at the Zeppelin works at<br />
Friedrichshafen. Both sites were bombed before production<br />
could start up, in fact, <strong>and</strong> A4s were instead<br />
assembled at the 'Mittelwerke' underground factory<br />
at Nordhausen from components manufactured all<br />
over occupied Europe. First deliveries were made in<br />
July 1944, <strong>and</strong> from September, the month when the<br />
V2 campaign started, a steady output <strong>of</strong> over 600 a<br />
month was maintained. Meanwhile, a training <strong>and</strong> test<br />
unit was established <strong>and</strong> launch sites were selected.<br />
There were two opposing views as to how the V2s<br />
should be deployed. The Oberkomm<strong>and</strong>o des Heeres<br />
(OK.H - Army High Comm<strong>and</strong>) wanted huge, wellprotected<br />
fixed sites, <strong>and</strong> selected three locations in<br />
Northern France from which rockets could be<br />
launched against Engl<strong>and</strong>. The first <strong>of</strong> these, at Watten,<br />
near St Omer, was destroyed by the USAAF on<br />
27 August 1943 while construction was still in an<br />
early phase; the second, at Siracourt, <strong>and</strong> the third, in<br />
a quarry at Wizernes, were truly massive affairs, over<br />
one million tonnes (one million tons) <strong>of</strong> reinforced<br />
concrete being cast into a protective dome, beneath<br />
which storage <strong>and</strong> launch chambers, <strong>and</strong> accommodation,<br />
were hollowed out. They were both destroyed<br />
by the RAF in July 1944 as part <strong>of</strong> Operation Crossbow<br />
(the broader campaign to destroy the VI launch<br />
sites) using 'Tallboy' penetration bombs, <strong>and</strong> finished<br />
<strong>of</strong>f with remotely controlled B-17 Flying Fortresses,<br />
packed with explosive, the following month. With<br />
that, the thoughts <strong>of</strong> the high comm<strong>and</strong> turned to the<br />
sort <strong>of</strong> mobile launchers that Dornberger had been<br />
advocating all along.<br />
30-VEHICLE BATTERY<br />
Given the complexity <strong>of</strong> the missile itself, the launch<br />
procedure was quite straightforward. One <strong>of</strong> the<br />
trucks in the battery's 30-vehicle convoy carried a circular<br />
launch platform fabricated from steel, which<br />
incorporated a blast deflector. This was set up on the<br />
ground at the rear <strong>of</strong> the missile transporter <strong>and</strong> levelled<br />
by means <strong>of</strong> screw jacks in its four legs. TheFR-<br />
Anhanger-S missile transporter, commonly known as<br />
the 'Meillerwagen' after its manufacturer, was
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
secured to it. While the power <strong>and</strong> test cables were<br />
being run out from the generator <strong>and</strong> control trucks,<br />
two <strong>of</strong> the three straps retaining the missile on its<br />
trailer bed were removed, leaving the topmost in<br />
place, <strong>and</strong> the nose fuze was then inserted. An auxiliary<br />
motor provided power for the hydraulic rams<br />
which then raised the missile to the vertical position -<br />
a process which took about 12 minutes - <strong>and</strong> when it<br />
was hanging vertically over the launch platform, the<br />
latter was jacked up to take the missile's weight <strong>and</strong><br />
the top retaining strap was removed.<br />
The various cables were then connected up, the<br />
transporter withdrew a short distance so that hinged<br />
platforms on its gantry could be deployed as work stations,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the testing procedure began. Once this had<br />
been successfully completed, the fuelling crews went<br />
to work, filling the main tanks with liquid oxygen <strong>and</strong><br />
methanol <strong>and</strong> the smaller tanks with hydrogen peroxide<br />
<strong>and</strong> the permanganate catalyst. Then the launch<br />
78<br />
platform was rotated on its base to align the missile<br />
with the target (the process <strong>of</strong> tipping it in flight was<br />
carried out by spinning a drum around its horizontal<br />
axis, thus causing the missile to rotate slowly in the<br />
opposite direction; the axis <strong>of</strong> the drum had, therefore,<br />
to be precisely at right-angles to the azimuth <strong>of</strong><br />
the target). Lastly, the igniter - a small firework, set<br />
<strong>of</strong>f electrically - was wedged into the tail pipe, <strong>and</strong><br />
the set-up crews withdrew.<br />
Right: In addition to the 'Meillerwagen' <strong>and</strong> its fleet <strong>of</strong><br />
associated vehicles, A4 launch teams also employed<br />
special trains. They were somewhat less flexible<br />
logistically but smoother in operation.<br />
Below: The A4 rocket - even without its 975kg (2150lb)<br />
warhead filled with amatol mix- could make a very large<br />
hole in the ground indeed... This crater was the result <strong>of</strong><br />
a test firing at White S<strong>and</strong>s.
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
The armoured launch control booth was situated in<br />
the back <strong>of</strong> a half-track vehicle, based on either the<br />
SdKfV, 11 Leichter Zugkraftwagen or the similar<br />
SdKfz 251 Mittlerer Schützenpanzerwagen, the<br />
armoured maid-<strong>of</strong>-all-work <strong>of</strong> the German Army<br />
since 1944. Closing the firing switch opened the<br />
valves in the T-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Z-St<strong>of</strong>f tanks <strong>and</strong> set the turbine<br />
pump in motion. Once it was up to speed, the<br />
main valves were opened, feeding propellant to the<br />
combustion chamber, <strong>and</strong> the igniter was fired. Directional<br />
control in the first few seconds was achieved by<br />
the carbon vanes in the exhaust gas flow, but as the<br />
rocket's speed increased, the external fin-tip rudders<br />
took over. As the missile rose, the spin <strong>of</strong> the drum<br />
caused it to tip over slowly, <strong>and</strong> at the appropriate<br />
point, the propellant supply was cut, initially by radio<br />
signal, later by comm<strong>and</strong> from an accelerometer. The<br />
warhead was armed only during flight, about 60 seconds<br />
after lift-<strong>of</strong>f at the moment <strong>of</strong> propellant cut-<strong>of</strong>f,<br />
Below: As this cutaway diagram shows, most <strong>of</strong> the<br />
internal volume <strong>of</strong> the A4 was taken up with tanks<br />
containing the liquid oxygen <strong>and</strong> methanol it used as fuel.<br />
80<br />
PEENEMUNDEA4 (V2)<br />
Type: Long-range ballistic missile<br />
Length: 14.05m (46.09ft)<br />
Diameter: 1.68m (5.51ft)<br />
Lift-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 12,870kg (28,373lb)<br />
Speed: 5580km/h (3465mph)<br />
Max range: 330km (205 miles)<br />
<strong>War</strong>head: 975kg (2150lb) <strong>of</strong> amatol mix<br />
<strong>and</strong> there was an interlock in the arming system<br />
which prevented arming taking place if the right conditions<br />
were not met. There was no provision for<br />
destroying the missile in flight on comm<strong>and</strong>.<br />
TARGET PARIS<br />
There were five batteries in all, based around the<br />
Hague in Holl<strong>and</strong> - one from Artillerie Abteilung<br />
(AA) 444, two from AA 485 <strong>and</strong> two from AA 836.<br />
The first <strong>and</strong> last formed the Southern Group, <strong>and</strong><br />
operated against targets in France <strong>and</strong> Belgium, while<br />
AA 485 formed the Northern Group <strong>and</strong> was tasked<br />
with targeting Engl<strong>and</strong>. Tt was AA 444 which<br />
launched the first operational V2, against Paris on 5<br />
September 1944. Three days later, AA 485 fired two<br />
rockets aimed at London, the first <strong>of</strong> which hit Staveley<br />
Road, Chiswick, in west London - having been<br />
aimed at Southwark, 13km (8 miles) away - at just<br />
before 1845 hours in the evening, demolishing six<br />
houses, killing three people <strong>and</strong> injuring 17. The campaign<br />
against London was to last exactly 200 days,<br />
the last missile falling at 1920 hours on 27 March<br />
1945, hitting a block <strong>of</strong> flats in Whitechapel, killing
134. Other reports suggest that the last A4 launched<br />
against London actually fell in Orpington, Kent, that<br />
day. In those 200 days, out <strong>of</strong> 1120 launched, 1054<br />
rockets l<strong>and</strong>ed in Engl<strong>and</strong>, 517 <strong>of</strong> them in the Greater<br />
London area, <strong>and</strong>, according to <strong>of</strong>ficial figures, killed<br />
2754 people <strong>and</strong> injured 6532. The larger Southern<br />
Group fired rather more missiles in all (about 1675),<br />
most <strong>of</strong> them targeted against Antwerp (1341). It also<br />
directed its fire against Brussels, Liege, Luxembourg,<br />
Paris <strong>and</strong> the Rhine crossing at Remagen. There was,<br />
<strong>of</strong> course, no defence against the V2. Only the Allied<br />
advance across northern Europe, which drove the<br />
Mobile Artillery Battalions out <strong>of</strong> range <strong>of</strong> worthwhile<br />
targets, put a stop to the campaign. Gruppe<br />
Nord reportedly still had 60 unexpended missiles<br />
when it fell back into Germany on 29 March.<br />
It is worth noting that a project aimed at firing an<br />
A4 from a submerged U-boat (actually, from a selfcontained<br />
chamber it towed behind it, which was<br />
caused to float vertically by means <strong>of</strong> flooding its tail<br />
section) had reached a fairly advanced stage by 1945,<br />
with several containers having been completed <strong>and</strong><br />
tested at the Vulkan shipyard in Stettin. Known as<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Project Test-St<strong>and</strong> X<strong>II</strong>, <strong>and</strong> conceived apparently by<br />
Volkswagen in late 1944, this was aimed at the bombardment<br />
<strong>of</strong> New York. However, it is suggested that<br />
a more-or-less successful test firing in the Baltic made<br />
it clear that a fully fuelled missile (there was no way<br />
it could be fuelled at sea) could not be expected to<br />
st<strong>and</strong> up to the rigours <strong>of</strong> a trans-Atlantic voyage,<br />
even submerged. The project was shelved.<br />
The A4 missile in its final form was to be made<br />
entirely <strong>of</strong> steel. At just over 14m (46ft) long, with a<br />
maximum body diameter <strong>of</strong> 1.68m (5.5ft) <strong>and</strong> a span<br />
over its fins <strong>of</strong> 3.5m (11.5ft), it weighed 12,870kg<br />
(28,3731b), <strong>of</strong> which 975kg (21501b) <strong>of</strong> amatol comprised<br />
its warhead, <strong>and</strong> 4900kg (10,7801b) <strong>of</strong> liquid<br />
oxygen <strong>and</strong> 3770kg (83001b) <strong>of</strong> methanol comprised<br />
the bulk <strong>of</strong> its propellant. It had a maximum range <strong>of</strong><br />
330km (205 miles), which it covered in 3 minutes 40<br />
seconds (<strong>of</strong> which it was under power for 70 seconds),<br />
reaching a maximum velocity <strong>of</strong> 5580km/h<br />
(3465mph) <strong>and</strong> height <strong>of</strong> 96,000m (315,000ft). Its<br />
velocity at impact was 2900km/h (1800 mph). There<br />
are rather divergent figures for total A4 production,<br />
estimates ranging from 6000 to as many as 10,000.
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: An A4 rocket, shrouded in tarpaulin, on the railway<br />
flatcar used to transport it to the vicinity <strong>of</strong> the launch site.<br />
The Allied advance across northern Europe drove the V2<br />
battalions out <strong>of</strong> effective range <strong>of</strong> worthwhile targets.<br />
THE LATER GUIDED BALLISTIC MISSILE PROJECTS<br />
As soon as the A4 was viable, the project was taken<br />
out <strong>of</strong> von Braun's h<strong>and</strong>s. He <strong>and</strong> his team, it is suggested,<br />
were never entirely satisfied with it, <strong>and</strong><br />
would happily have gone on refining <strong>their</strong> design, but<br />
Heinrich Himmler, who had previously seized control<br />
<strong>of</strong> all the secret weapons programmes, would not<br />
accept that. Von Braun turned to working on ways <strong>of</strong><br />
increasing its range. The simplest means, he concluded,<br />
was to fit it with wings, so that it would glide in<br />
the final phase <strong>of</strong> its flight, prolonging its descent <strong>and</strong><br />
increasing its range to 435km (270 miles), but he<br />
counted without the effects <strong>of</strong> re-entering the dense<br />
air at lower atmospheric levels. The one A4b missile<br />
which was launched successfully (the first one<br />
crashed soon after take-<strong>of</strong>f) failed to re-enter cleanly<br />
<strong>and</strong> was destroyed.<br />
The A6, which never made it past the discussion<br />
stage, was to have been an A4 fueled by SV-StoiT,<br />
made up <strong>of</strong> 94 per cent nitric acid <strong>and</strong> 6 per cent<br />
nitrous oxide, <strong>and</strong> Visol (the generic name given to a<br />
group <strong>of</strong> isobutyl-vinyl esters); it was to have 20 per<br />
82<br />
cent more thrust. The A7 was a winged version <strong>of</strong> the<br />
A5, air-launched as a concept vehicle for the A9. The<br />
A8 was virtually identical to the A6 but fuelled with<br />
SV-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> diesel oil, although it is also suggested<br />
that it was to have been fuelled with LOX <strong>and</strong><br />
methanol contained in pressurized tanks, rather than<br />
employing the turbine pump to deliver them to the<br />
combustion chamber. The A9 was the A4b with modified<br />
wing planform: essentially, the horizontal fins<br />
were to have been continued forward, right to the<br />
rocket's nose, in a simple ogive, to allow it to survive<br />
re-entry; it had the motor from the A6, with a projected<br />
range <strong>of</strong> 600km (370 miles).<br />
The final ballistic missile project, the A10, was<br />
much more ambitious in scale <strong>and</strong> had it ever materialised,<br />
would have been the first ever ICBM. The projected<br />
inter-continental ballistic missile was to have<br />
been a two-stage rocket, the first stage being based on<br />
six A4 motors linked into a common venturi, <strong>and</strong><br />
designed to propel its second stage - either an A4 or<br />
an A9 - to an altitude <strong>of</strong> 24km (14.9 miles) before its<br />
own motor was fired, giving it a range <strong>of</strong> around<br />
4800km (2800 miles) with a 1000kg (22001b) amatol<br />
warhead <strong>and</strong> a flight time <strong>of</strong> around 45 minutes. It is<br />
suggested that this project was first discussed as early<br />
as 1940, long before the United States entered the<br />
war, but there is no evidence that it got beyond the
discussion stage. There was also talk <strong>of</strong> modifying the<br />
second-stage A9 missile to carry a pilot, who would<br />
have been ejected once he had locked the missile on a<br />
course for its target (presumably he would have been<br />
recovered by a submarine), but that idea can be dismissed<br />
as a flight <strong>of</strong> fancy.<br />
THE 'RHEINBOTE' ROCKET<br />
The FZG 76 <strong>and</strong> the A4 were the only guided surfaceto-surface<br />
missiles employed by either side during<br />
<strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> IT, but the A4 was by no means the only<br />
war rocket. Most <strong>of</strong> the combatant nations employed<br />
much simpler devices - unguided <strong>and</strong> with solid-fuel<br />
'motors' - as adjuncts to <strong>their</strong> artillery or as assault<br />
weapons, but once again, only Germany went one<br />
stage further, <strong>and</strong> produced a long-range unguided<br />
ballistic missile, the Rh.Z.61/9 'Rheinbote' ('Rhine<br />
Messenger'), developed by a company better known<br />
for its artillery pieces <strong>and</strong> its share in the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> the superlative MG 42 general-purpose machine<br />
gun, Rheinmetall-Borsig. Where the A4 was complex<br />
<strong>and</strong> expensive, 'Rheinbote' was simple. It was a finstabilised<br />
four-stage solid-fuel rocket, each <strong>of</strong> the first<br />
SURFACE-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
three stages igniting the next as it burned out <strong>and</strong> fell<br />
away, with no guidance system, but relying on simple<br />
alignment <strong>of</strong> the launch rail with the target. The<br />
launch rail could be mounted on either a high-angle<br />
8.8cm anti-aircraft gun mount or on a modified<br />
'Meillerwagen', <strong>and</strong> the complete missile was almost<br />
11.5m (37.5ft) long with a maximum body diameter<br />
(in the first stage) <strong>of</strong> 535mm (21.1in) <strong>and</strong> a maximum<br />
fin span <strong>of</strong> 1.49m (58.5in). It weighed a total <strong>of</strong><br />
1715kg (37751b), almost a third <strong>of</strong> which was propellant.<br />
It had a maximum range <strong>of</strong> 220km (140 miles)<br />
when fired at an elevation <strong>of</strong> 65 degrees, the final<br />
stage, with its 40kg (881b) warhead, attaining a speed<br />
<strong>of</strong> Mach 5.5 (almost 6000km/h; 3730mph) <strong>and</strong> climbing<br />
to a maximum altitude <strong>of</strong> 78km (48.5 miles). Over<br />
200 <strong>of</strong> these missiles were fired at Antwerp in<br />
November 1944.<br />
Below: An A4 rocket is paraded through London's<br />
Trafalgar Square in late September 1945. The rocket was<br />
reportedly captured in France, <strong>and</strong> was later set up as if<br />
for launch next to Nelson's Column. Greater London was<br />
on the receiving end <strong>of</strong> more than 500 V2s in 1944-45.<br />
83
CHAPTER SIX<br />
Air-to-Air <strong>Weapons</strong><br />
While the adoption <strong>of</strong> the machine gun made air-to-air combat feasible, by the midyears<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, it had come close to causing a st<strong>and</strong>-<strong>of</strong>f: machine gun- (<strong>and</strong><br />
even cannon-) armed aircraft dared not approach each other: it was too dangerous.<br />
The alternative, it was clear to German researchers, was to develop small rocketpropelled<br />
flying bombs which could be directed to <strong>their</strong> targets via either wire-borne<br />
or radio signals from a chase plane which stayed outside the lethal area.<br />
During his post-war interrogation, Generalleutnant<br />
Adolf Gal l<strong>and</strong> described the many <strong>and</strong> various<br />
weapons the Luftwaffe had used - or had contemplated<br />
using - against the tightly packed formations <strong>of</strong><br />
Allied daylight bombers with <strong>their</strong> heavy defensive<br />
firepower. He described how attacking the formations<br />
from the rear immediately resulted in heavy casualties,<br />
<strong>and</strong> how the German interceptors then switched<br />
over to attacking them head-on, hoping to break up<br />
the formation <strong>and</strong> then go after consequently vulnerable<br />
individual aircraft. This worked up to a point, but<br />
only until the bombers began taking concerted evasive<br />
action, <strong>and</strong> from then - some time in the winter <strong>of</strong><br />
1942-43 - the Luftwaffe began looking at alternatives<br />
Above: Henschel developed the Hs 293 for use against<br />
shipping, but an air-to-air variant was also produced.<br />
Left: Germany desperately needed an antidote to massed<br />
formations <strong>of</strong> Allied bombers like these B-17s.<br />
to the simple cannon <strong>and</strong> machine gun to arm <strong>their</strong><br />
aircraft, to allow them to attack either from unexpected<br />
directions or from outside the effective range <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Fortress's <strong>and</strong> Liberator's .5 inch Brownings. Because<br />
the bombers flew so close together, much consideration<br />
was given to bombing them, <strong>and</strong> a variety <strong>of</strong><br />
methods were tested, including dive-bombing individual<br />
aircraft; towing comm<strong>and</strong>-detonated 10kg<br />
(221b) fragmentation bombs on long cables (tested in<br />
combat, with two unconfirmed successes, despite the<br />
physical difficulty <strong>of</strong> actually delivering the weapon,<br />
which trailed out behind the towing aircraft); <strong>and</strong><br />
dropping blast <strong>and</strong> fragmentation bombs on<br />
parachutes ahead <strong>of</strong> the formation to form an aerial<br />
minefield (this latter method was promising, but<br />
development <strong>of</strong> a satisfactory weapon came too late).<br />
Other methods included using forward-firing heavy<br />
cannon - essentially, light anti-aircraft <strong>and</strong> anti-tank<br />
guns - to shoot at them from a great distance, but this<br />
was to prove only marginally effective; <strong>and</strong> using
Above: The simplest <strong>of</strong> all air-to-air missiles was the<br />
unguided rocket, fired in a salvo. This Ba 349 was armed<br />
with 24 R4M rockets with 250g (8.8oz) warheads.<br />
obliquely firing cannon to attack them from below.<br />
This approach was to prove devastatingly effective<br />
against RAF night bombers, but less so against the<br />
USAAF, whose aircraft had belly <strong>and</strong> waist gunners.<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the reasons that heavy forward-firing guns<br />
were ineffective was the amount <strong>of</strong> recoil they produced:<br />
it slowed the aircraft perceptibly if more than<br />
a few rounds were fired. The effect should not be<br />
underestimated. One trainee in an Me 262, who found<br />
himself committed to l<strong>and</strong>ing on too short a strip, let<br />
go with the four 30mm MK 108 in the aircraft's nose<br />
<strong>and</strong> brought his aircraft up short <strong>of</strong> the end <strong>of</strong> the runway,<br />
thanks to the additional braking effect. Another<br />
reason was the extra drag these usually externally<br />
mounted guns created, reducing the aircraft's performance<br />
considerably. For the Germans, the employment<br />
<strong>of</strong> relatively heavy calibre guns in aircraft seems<br />
to have had a lasting fascination. Other nations' air<br />
forces tried it too; the ultimate in that line, according<br />
to one source, seems to have been the fitting <strong>of</strong> a<br />
32pdr (94mm) anti-tank gun into a Mosquito. For the<br />
Germans, the programme to adapt light anti-aircraft<br />
guns <strong>and</strong> anti-tank guns - notably in 3.7cm <strong>and</strong> 5cm<br />
calibres, though 7.5cm was tested, too - continued to<br />
the war's end. Some <strong>of</strong> the last German aircraft left in<br />
combat were a pair <strong>of</strong> Me 262A-la/U4s with the 5cm<br />
Mauser MK 214 mounted in the nose. One <strong>of</strong> these<br />
aircraft, nicknamed 'Wilma Jeanne' was captured<br />
intact by US forces, but was destroyed after it suffered<br />
engine failure during a flight to Cherbourg, where it<br />
was to have been loaded aboard a ship for the USA.<br />
There was an alternative: the so-called 'recoilless<br />
rifle', invented during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I by an American<br />
naval <strong>of</strong>ficer named Davis. A variety <strong>of</strong> recoilless<br />
rifles were mounted on aircraft <strong>and</strong> tested, but though<br />
the type worked well enough in principle - <strong>and</strong> one, it<br />
is reported, was used successfully in combat - this<br />
was a single-shot weapon, with all the problems<br />
there<strong>of</strong>. In fact we may bear in mind that the only reason<br />
air-to-air combat had ever been even possible was<br />
thanks to the machine gun, with its unique ability to<br />
keep on throwing bullets into a target area until something<br />
ran into one or more <strong>of</strong> them. The weapons in<br />
question were <strong>of</strong> two basic types. The simpler type<br />
worked on the counter-shot principle <strong>and</strong> was almost<br />
two guns in one. The 'ordinary' barrel contained the<br />
projectile; a subsidiary barrel behind the breech, precisely<br />
aligned with the regular barrel, contained a<br />
counter-shot <strong>of</strong> the same weight, usually composed <strong>of</strong><br />
wax or grease <strong>and</strong> lead shot in a paper cartridge. In<br />
between them lay the chamber containing the propellant<br />
cartridge. When the gun was fired, both projectile<br />
<strong>and</strong> counter-shot left <strong>their</strong> respective barrels with the<br />
same energy, <strong>and</strong> <strong>their</strong> recoils thus cancelled each<br />
other out. In the more refined (<strong>and</strong> more complex)<br />
version <strong>of</strong> the weapon, the cartridge case became the
counter-shot, its lesser mass being compensated for<br />
by allowing a proportion <strong>of</strong> the propellant gases to be<br />
exhausted through a series <strong>of</strong> jets in the chamber wall,<br />
the components once again cancelling each other out.<br />
Both methods worked, though the latter caused some<br />
bad moments for pilots who flew aircraft so equipped.<br />
THE ZOSSEN DEVICE<br />
The Luftwaffe tried to surmount the problem <strong>of</strong> the<br />
weapon being able to fire only a single round by<br />
mounting it in groups <strong>of</strong> as many as 49, to be set <strong>of</strong>f<br />
in ripple salvoes. Recoilless guns were mounted to<br />
fire both forwards <strong>and</strong> upwards; pilots <strong>of</strong> single-seater<br />
aircraft found aiming the latter to be somewhat problematic,<br />
<strong>and</strong> so a trigger unit which incorporated a<br />
light source <strong>and</strong> a photoelectric cell, the so-called<br />
'Zossen' device, was developed. Tt was tested successfully<br />
in 1944, but very few were ever fitted to aircraft.<br />
An even more complicated automatic trigger<br />
was developed for a downward-firing recoilless rifle<br />
for use against tanks, detecting the tank's magnetic<br />
field <strong>and</strong> using that to trigger the gun when the aircraft<br />
was directly overhead.<br />
Perhaps the most ambitious plan ever involving<br />
gun armament for aircraft was put forward early in<br />
1939. The Gerät 104 was a 35cm-calibre recoilless<br />
gun which fired a 635kg (14001b) armour-piercing<br />
shell (the cartridge case weighed the same, <strong>and</strong> thus<br />
acted as the counter-shot itself). It was intended for<br />
use against ships <strong>of</strong> the Royal Navy lying at anchor in<br />
Scapa Flow (a place <strong>of</strong> special importance to the<br />
Germans, <strong>of</strong> course, not just because it dominated the<br />
northern approaches, but also as the site <strong>of</strong> the scuttling<br />
<strong>of</strong> the High Seas Fleet in 1919), but in the event,<br />
the plan came to nothing. However, later an even bigger<br />
weapon, the 54cm 'Munchausen' cannon, was<br />
proposed, <strong>and</strong> it seems that a prototype was constructed<br />
<strong>and</strong> mounted beneath a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka<br />
dive-bomber. Not entirely unsurprisingly, the effect <strong>of</strong><br />
firing such a weapon, recoilless or not, upon a relatively<br />
light aircraft was unpredictable to say the least<br />
<strong>and</strong> the project was cancelled.<br />
Another, <strong>and</strong> simpler, solution to the recoil problem<br />
was to substitute rockets - which have no recoil<br />
- for guns, <strong>and</strong> almost from the outset, this proved to<br />
be successful. Initially, the weapon used was a cutdown<br />
version <strong>of</strong> the Army's 21cm Nebelwerfer 42<br />
rocket launcher, mounted in various ways, which was<br />
eventually superseded by the 5.5cm R4M rocket. The<br />
21cm rockets were first fitted in pairs to Fw 190s;<br />
they could be jettisoned after use, <strong>and</strong> most pilots<br />
AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS<br />
adopted this procedure, for they robbed the aircraft <strong>of</strong><br />
about 50km/h (30mph). They were used against<br />
bomber formations, <strong>and</strong> also as air-to-ground<br />
weapons. Twin-engine fighters such as the Bf 110 <strong>and</strong><br />
Me 410 were fitted with larger batteries. They were<br />
not only employed as forward-firing weapons; a few<br />
Ju 88s <strong>and</strong> He 177s were modified to carry up to 24<br />
launchers within the fuselage, angled to fire upwards,<br />
while some Fw 190s carried a single rearwards-firing<br />
tube. The rocket itself, the 21cm Wurfgranate<br />
(Spreng), was a powerful weapon, with a 10.2kg<br />
(22.41b) warhead <strong>and</strong> an intial velocity <strong>of</strong> 320m/s<br />
(1050fps). As an artillery bombardment rocket it had<br />
a range <strong>of</strong> about 8000m (8750 yards); in the air it was<br />
reckoned to be effective out to 800-1200m<br />
(875-1300 yards).<br />
THE R4M<br />
The R4M was more effective: with its much smaller<br />
pr<strong>of</strong>ile it produced less drag, <strong>and</strong> more could be carried.<br />
The usual load for an Me 262 was 24, in a rack<br />
under each wing outboard <strong>of</strong> the engines, but that<br />
could be doubled when necessary by adding another<br />
pair <strong>of</strong> racks. The racks were mounted at an upwards<br />
inclination <strong>of</strong> 8 degrees, <strong>and</strong> the missiles were fired<br />
serially, at a fraction <strong>of</strong> a second's interval (a 'ripple<br />
salvo'), at a range <strong>of</strong> around 600m (660yds). The<br />
R4M was simplicity itself: a stick <strong>of</strong> diglycol solid<br />
fuel which, being nitrocellulose based, burned at a<br />
predictable rate based on the surface area exposed to<br />
the atmosphere, with a contact-fuzed warhead <strong>and</strong><br />
spring-loaded stabilising fins, which deployed as soon<br />
as it left the launch tube (originally <strong>of</strong> metal, but later<br />
<strong>of</strong> carboard). Measuring 82cm (32.2in) long <strong>and</strong><br />
5.5cm (2.16in) in diameter, it was adapted for a variety<br />
<strong>of</strong> purposes but was mainly employed against aircraft<br />
<strong>and</strong> tanks. It was virtually identical to the British<br />
3in (7.62cm) rocket which preceded it into service by<br />
some years. 'Föhn', its putative successor, was a<br />
somewhat larger but essentially similar device, originally<br />
designed as an anti-aircraft weapon. With a<br />
diameter <strong>of</strong> 7.3cm (2.8in), it had a conventional warhead<br />
containing 250g (8.8oz) <strong>of</strong> TNT/RDX (the<br />
R4M's anti-aircraft warhead, the PB-3, was a shapedcharge,<br />
with 400g (14oz) <strong>of</strong> Hexogen). Few, if any,<br />
were used operationally.<br />
One <strong>of</strong> the advantages <strong>of</strong> the R4M was that since<br />
the rocket had the same short-range ballistics as the<br />
30mm cannon shell, the existing cockpit gunsight<br />
could be employed, but unfortunately, that was saying<br />
very little, for it was not an easy task to take accurate
AIR-TO-AIR WEAPONS<br />
aim on a target which was taking evasive action from<br />
a fast-flying aircraft whose flight characteristics<br />
caused it to snake at high speed. The answer, <strong>of</strong><br />
course, was to provide a guidance system to control<br />
the missile in flight.<br />
AIR-TO-AIR MISSILES<br />
From as early as 1939, the Henschel company - a<br />
newcomer to aviation, but with a very solid background<br />
in heavy engineering - had maintained a team<br />
whose task was to study the remote control <strong>of</strong><br />
unmanned aircraft. In January 1940, Herbert Wagner<br />
arrived to head the team, with a brief from the RLM<br />
to concentrate on air-to-surf ace missiles (ASMs). He<br />
was successful, as we shall discover, <strong>and</strong> in 1943 the<br />
company proposed a version <strong>of</strong> the Hs 293 ASM he<br />
developed as an air-to-air missile (AAM). Like most<br />
<strong>of</strong> the ASMs, the Hs 293H was a blast weapon, to be<br />
guided into a bomber formation <strong>and</strong> exploded there,<br />
instead <strong>of</strong> being aimed at an individual aircraft, <strong>and</strong><br />
had a 295kg (6501b) warhead. One version <strong>of</strong> it was<br />
to have had a television camera in its nose, the picture<br />
it transmitted to the controller allowing him a clear<br />
view at ranges <strong>of</strong> up to about 4km (2.5 miles), but the<br />
apparatus proved very unreliable, <strong>and</strong> the idea, also<br />
tried out on the ASM itself, was shelved. Control was<br />
line-<strong>of</strong>-sight from the launch aircraft, the operator<br />
using a joystick to initiate radio signals which in turn<br />
actuated control surfaces on the missile itself.<br />
This system was to be used in all the German guided<br />
missiles, <strong>and</strong> will be explained more fully below,<br />
in the context <strong>of</strong> the surface-to-air missiles for which<br />
it was originally developed. The missile had both<br />
comm<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> proximity fuzes as well as a barometric<br />
fuze to ensure that it would self-destruct before it<br />
hit the ground. It was powered by a specially designed<br />
Schmidding rocket which used M-St<strong>of</strong>f (methanol)<br />
<strong>and</strong> A-St<strong>of</strong>f (oxygen), the latter being, unusually, in<br />
gaseous form, to produce 610kg (13401b) <strong>of</strong> static<br />
thrust for 11 seconds. The Hs 293 was too big <strong>and</strong><br />
clumsy for the anti-aircraft role, <strong>and</strong> it comes as no<br />
surprise to discover that after some initial enthusiasm,<br />
the RLM went cold on the idea. By then, however,<br />
Henschel had begun work on the 'Schmetterling' surface-to-air<br />
missile (SAM; see Chapter Eight), <strong>and</strong> had<br />
proposed a version for use in the AAM role.<br />
THE HENSCHEL Hs117H<br />
The Hs 117H, as the variant was known, was very little<br />
different from the basic 'Schmetterling', save that<br />
it required no external booster rockets, but it had a<br />
significantly larger warhead, containing 100kg<br />
(2201b) <strong>of</strong> explosive. It employed the same guidance<br />
system as the Hs 293H. The intended range <strong>of</strong> the Hs<br />
I17H was 6-10km (3.7-6.2 miles), at up to 5000m<br />
(16,500ft) above the 'parent' aircraft, which was a<br />
considerable improvement over the earlier missile. It<br />
was still in development at the war's end, having survived<br />
the axe which descended on so many development<br />
projects in January 1945, it is suggested, simply<br />
because it had so much in common with the ASM<br />
from which it was descended.<br />
Henschel also developed a missile specifically<br />
intended for use in the air-to-air role, the Hs 298, considerably<br />
smaller than either <strong>of</strong> the others <strong>and</strong> with<br />
reduced range. Like them, it had swept-back wings<br />
<strong>and</strong> a tailplane with short fins at its extremities, <strong>and</strong><br />
control was by means <strong>of</strong> solenoid-operated 'Wagner<br />
bars' responding to radio signals. The motor was a<br />
solid-fuel two-stage Schmidding 109-543 which gave<br />
150kg (3301b) <strong>of</strong> thrust for five-<strong>and</strong>-a-half seconds<br />
followed by 50kg (HOlb) <strong>of</strong> thrust for 20 seconds.<br />
The first experimental Hs 298 was fired in May 1944,<br />
<strong>and</strong> altogether some 300 were produced <strong>and</strong> expended<br />
in trials. With a warhead containing either 25kg<br />
(551b) or 48kg (1061b) <strong>of</strong> explosive, detonated on<br />
comm<strong>and</strong> or by a proximity fuze, it had a range <strong>of</strong> up<br />
to 2500m (2735 yards), travelled at either 940km/h<br />
(585mph) or 680km/h (425mph), <strong>and</strong> was designed to<br />
be deployed aboard piston-engined aircraft such as<br />
Do 217s, Fw 190s <strong>and</strong> Ju 88s. Development ceased in<br />
favour <strong>of</strong> the Ruhrstahl X-4 in January 1945.<br />
THE RUHRSTAHL X-4<br />
Ruhrstahl AG was, as its name suggests, a steelmaker.<br />
In 1940 it was ordered to collaborate with Dr Max<br />
Kramer <strong>of</strong> the DVL to develop a series <strong>of</strong> bombs <strong>and</strong><br />
missiles using the spoiler control method the latter<br />
had demonstrated two years earlier. This collaboration<br />
was to result in three very interesting missiles:<br />
the so-called 'Fritz-X' guided glider bomb; the X-7<br />
'Rottkappchen' ('Red Riding Hood') anti-tank missile;<br />
<strong>and</strong> the X-4 air-to-air missile. Development <strong>of</strong><br />
the X-4 began in 1943 in parallel with Henschel's Hs<br />
298. These two missiles had very similar specifications,<br />
though it appears that the X-4 was designed<br />
from the start to operate with jet aircraft, <strong>and</strong> thus<br />
flew at higher speeds. The primary difference<br />
between the X-4 <strong>and</strong> other missiles was that it was<br />
equipped not with wings <strong>and</strong> a tailplane, but with two<br />
sets <strong>of</strong> four fins, one set swept back at an acute angle,<br />
with parallel chord width roughly halfway back from
Above: The Ruhrstahl X-4 was the most sophisticated <strong>of</strong><br />
all the air-to-air missiles produced during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. It<br />
had an ingenious wire-based guidance system.<br />
the nose; the other, <strong>of</strong>fset by 45 degrees <strong>and</strong> carrying<br />
the moveable spoilers, at the tail. Secondarily, it was<br />
designed from the outset to be guided by wire, rather<br />
than radio signals - as it was planned to switch over<br />
to control by wire for all missiles since radio signals<br />
were simply too easy to jam - the necessary differentiation<br />
being obtained by switching the polarity <strong>of</strong> the<br />
signal to activate the pitch controls, <strong>and</strong> by varying its<br />
strength to activate the yaw controls. This system<br />
used the Düsseldorf/Detmold (FuG 510/238) transmitter-receiver<br />
pair, which were analogous to the<br />
Kehl/Strassburg radio transmitter <strong>and</strong> receiver. It was<br />
originally developed for use with the glide bomb, as<br />
we shall see in due course.<br />
As we noted when discussing the surface-to-surface<br />
missiles, a cylindrical body in flight has a tendency to<br />
roll. The small fin-tip vanes necessary to correct the<br />
tendency in the X-4 would have interfered with<br />
Kramer's control spoilers, so instead <strong>of</strong> trying to correct<br />
it, the X-4's designers encouraged <strong>and</strong> controlled<br />
it to a rate <strong>of</strong> about one revolution per second by fitting<br />
<strong>of</strong>fset trim tabs to the main fins. This, it was<br />
believed, had the subsidiary effect <strong>of</strong> nullifying manufacturing<br />
inaccuracies causing imbalance (which<br />
would have thrown the missile <strong>of</strong>f its line) just as the<br />
rifling in a gun's barrel does. Because <strong>of</strong> the spin,<br />
though, it was necessary to fit a gyroscopic unit which<br />
switched the control signals between the spoilers on<br />
the rear fins so that those which controlled pitch while<br />
they were within 45 degrees <strong>of</strong> the horizontal changed<br />
over to controlling yaw as they came within 45<br />
degrees <strong>of</strong> the vertical, <strong>and</strong> vice-versa. The 5.5km-<br />
(3.5 mile-) long wires carrying the positive <strong>and</strong> return<br />
components <strong>of</strong> the electrical signal were paid out<br />
from bobbins in streamlined pods on the tips <strong>of</strong> two<br />
<strong>of</strong> the main fins. It mattered not at all that the control<br />
wires became twisted as the missile spun, for it made<br />
a maximum <strong>of</strong> perhaps 24 revolutions in the entire<br />
course <strong>of</strong> its flight. It was planned to use the liquidfuelled<br />
BMW 109-548 rocket to power the missile,<br />
<strong>and</strong> in order to counteract any tendency the spin (<strong>and</strong><br />
any violent manoeuvres in flight) had to disrupt fuel<br />
flow, the tanks which contained the R-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> SV-<br />
St<strong>of</strong>f were spirally wound concentrically within the<br />
double-tapering cylindrical form <strong>of</strong> the missile's<br />
body. They contained free-moving pistons - leather in<br />
the R-St<strong>of</strong>f tank, aluminium in the acidic oxidizer -<br />
driven by compressed air. The motor, producing<br />
140kg (310Ib) <strong>of</strong> thrust reducing to 30kg (661b) by the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> its 17-second burn time, was only ever used in<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the test launches, Schmidding 109-603 diglycol<br />
solid-fuel motors being substituted.<br />
The first test firing <strong>of</strong> the missile from an aircraft<br />
(an Fw 190) took place on 11 August 1944, <strong>and</strong> by<br />
that time a total <strong>of</strong> 224 prototypes had been produced.<br />
In all, about 1000 airframes were then produced for<br />
operational use between August <strong>and</strong> December 1944,<br />
but there were delays in engine production. Then, just<br />
as the problems were ironed out, the BMW plant<br />
which was manufacturing the 109-548 was badly<br />
damaged in an air raid, <strong>and</strong> the motors which had<br />
been belatedly produced were destroyed. This was the<br />
final nail in the X-4's c<strong>of</strong>fin <strong>and</strong> the missile never saw<br />
operational service as a result.
CHAPTER SEVEN<br />
Air-to-Surface<br />
Missiles<br />
Hitting a target on the ground with a bomb dropped from an aircraft was never easy;<br />
as soon as effective anti-aircraft artillery <strong>and</strong> fighter aircraft were added to the<br />
equation, it became very costly, too, particularly in human lives. By the end <strong>of</strong> the<br />
twentieth century, st<strong>and</strong>-<strong>of</strong>f bombing using remote guidance was to become<br />
commonplace, but at the time <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> this was pure fantasy - until German<br />
During the Spanish Civil <strong>War</strong> <strong>of</strong> 1936-1939, the<br />
Luftwaffe discovered that the only really effective<br />
way to deliver bombs on to a point target was in<br />
a near-vertical dive. This procedure they repeated in<br />
1939 in Pol<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> in 1940 in the Low Countries <strong>and</strong><br />
France. Over Britain, later in the year, the Luftwaffe<br />
came across the basic flaw in this principle: dive<br />
bombers were uncomfortably vulnerable to effective<br />
Above: The Henschel Hs 294 guided aerial torpedo's tail<br />
<strong>and</strong> wings were designed to break <strong>of</strong>f on hitting the water.<br />
Left: An early air-to-surface missile was the Blohm & Voss<br />
Bv 143, mounted here on a Heinkel He 111H.<br />
scientists took up the task.<br />
fighter aircraft <strong>and</strong> concentrated anti-aircraft artillery.<br />
As an alternative, there was always area bombing<br />
from high altitude, but it was very wasteful <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong> little<br />
use against isolated high-value targets. <strong>War</strong>ships at<br />
sea were particularly difficult to hit, <strong>and</strong> the Luftwaffe<br />
frequently found itself mounting costly raids on<br />
important maritime targets which achieved little or<br />
nothing. Quite early on, thoughts turned to the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> a bomb which could be guided in flight.<br />
THE RUHRSTAHL X-1<br />
Ruhrstahl's X-4 air-to-air missile showed promise,<br />
but it never lived up to it. Much more useful was the<br />
guided bomb they produced as the X-1. It had a
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
plethora <strong>of</strong> names: the RLM called it the PC 1400X;<br />
the Luftwaffe called it the 'Fritz-X'; <strong>and</strong> it has also<br />
been referred to as the FX 1400 <strong>and</strong> simply as the FX.<br />
However, its success was shortlived, despite having<br />
been designed with cheapness <strong>and</strong> simplicity in mind.<br />
It had as its starting point the Luftwaffe's st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
1400kg (30801b) bomb, either the cast-steel thickcased<br />
SD (Sprengbombe Dickw<strong>and</strong>ig) 1400 known as<br />
'Fritz', or the forged-steel armour-piercing variant,<br />
the PC (Panzersprengbombe Cylindrisch) 1400. The<br />
original bomb, manufactured by Rheinmetall-Borsig,<br />
<strong>of</strong> perfectly conventional shape, was a plain cylinder<br />
with a rounded nose coming to a blunt point <strong>and</strong> a<br />
conical tail with four sheet-metal fins partially<br />
shrouded by a strengthening ring at the extremity.<br />
Ruhrstahl modified the overall form somewhat for its<br />
guided bomb, leaving the last part <strong>of</strong> the cylinder<br />
intact but introducing an oversize ogival form to the<br />
first two-thirds <strong>of</strong> its length.<br />
In order to maximise its aerodynamic performance,<br />
they gave it four relatively large fins, located<br />
forward <strong>of</strong> the mid-point <strong>of</strong> the bomb's length, with<br />
square leading edges <strong>and</strong> a pronounced sweep to the<br />
trailing edges. These main fins were mounted asymmetrically,<br />
as if they formed the diagonals <strong>of</strong> a rectangle<br />
with sides in the ratio one-<strong>and</strong>-a-half to one.<br />
The 12-sided framework which replaced the simple<br />
fin-<strong>and</strong>-shroud empennage maintained that same<br />
basic rectangular form, but with the corners cut <strong>of</strong>f.<br />
Within it were four smaller fins, set vertically <strong>and</strong><br />
horizontally <strong>and</strong> containing the spoilers themselves,<br />
simple tabs which were actuated by electro-magnets<br />
<strong>and</strong> which caused disturbance within the airflow over<br />
the appropriate surface <strong>of</strong> the fin when they were<br />
deployed. Deployment in turn caused the whole bomb<br />
to alter course or angle <strong>of</strong> descent by swinging it<br />
around the axis formed by the straight leading edge <strong>of</strong><br />
the main fins.<br />
RADIO GUIDED<br />
Guidance was by means <strong>of</strong> a radio link using the<br />
Kehl/Strassburg system (but later, the wire-link control<br />
system was adapted for use with the X-l too),<br />
while flares, or battery-powered lamps on the tail for<br />
use at night, helped the operator to keep track <strong>of</strong> the<br />
missile in flight. It was a simple, fairly ingenious system,<br />
<strong>and</strong> it worked well enough, so long as the bomb<br />
was dropped from sufficient height. Released at the<br />
minimum altitude <strong>of</strong> 4000m (13,125ft) it had a range<br />
<strong>of</strong> up to 4.5km (2.8 miles); dropped from the maximum<br />
height any <strong>of</strong> its carrying aircraft could attain <strong>of</strong><br />
92<br />
8000m (26,250ft), the range was up to 9km (5.6<br />
miles). It was capable <strong>of</strong> piercing 130mm (5.125 in) <strong>of</strong><br />
armour plate when dropped from 6000m (19,700ft).<br />
Though it is <strong>of</strong>ten referred to as a glider bomb, that is<br />
not actually the case. Its forward speed was that<br />
imparted by the launching aircraft, <strong>and</strong> it certainly did<br />
not 'fly' in any accepted sense. Its only major vector<br />
was downwards, <strong>and</strong> all the spoilers could do was<br />
modify its path to a small degree. That was <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
enough to make the difference between success <strong>and</strong><br />
failure, as we shall see later when we look at operational<br />
deployment <strong>of</strong> the ASMs. A total <strong>of</strong> 1386 X-ls<br />
were produced between April 1943 <strong>and</strong> December<br />
1944, when manufacturing ceased, <strong>and</strong> this was far<br />
short <strong>of</strong> the planned figure <strong>of</strong> 750 per month. Less<br />
than half <strong>of</strong> them - a total <strong>of</strong> 602 - were expended, in<br />
testing, training <strong>and</strong> operations.<br />
THE RUHRSTAHL X-1 IN ACTION<br />
From 29 August 1943, <strong>II</strong>I Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader<br />
100 (HI/KG 100), equipped with Dornier 217K-2s<br />
<strong>and</strong> operating out <strong>of</strong> Istres near Marseilles, was the<br />
first unit to employ Ruhrstahl X-ls to attack Allied<br />
shipping in the Mediterranean. Initially they were<br />
unsuccessful, but within a fortnight they had scored<br />
heavily <strong>and</strong> it soon became clear that the X-1 was a<br />
very potent weapon indeed.<br />
On 4 September, Italy ab<strong>and</strong>oned the Axis <strong>and</strong><br />
reached a separate peace with the Allies, but there<br />
were still no clear indications <strong>of</strong> which way the powerful<br />
but until now seriously misused Italian Navy<br />
would jump. On 9 September the Allies l<strong>and</strong>ed at<br />
Salerno, <strong>and</strong> at 12 noon that day, reconnaissance<br />
reported that the Italian Fleet was at sea, headed south<br />
for Malta. Within two hours, 12 Do 217s <strong>of</strong> <strong>II</strong>I<br />
Gruppe, led by Major Bernhard Jope, each armed<br />
with a single X-1, were in the air. They headed east at<br />
low altitude, then, climbing as they neared the coast<br />
<strong>of</strong> Sardinia, made out the shapes <strong>of</strong> three battleships<br />
with an escort <strong>of</strong> six cruisers <strong>and</strong> eight destroyers,<br />
Jope led his formation to 6500m (7108 yards) <strong>and</strong><br />
turned towards the ships, which were now zig-zagging<br />
wildly <strong>and</strong> firing every one <strong>of</strong> <strong>their</strong> anti-aircraft<br />
guns. The first missile, launched by Oberleutnant<br />
Heinrich Schmelz (who was to be awarded the<br />
Knight's Cross, <strong>and</strong> later go on to comm<strong>and</strong> the<br />
group), struck the 40,000-tonne (39,368-ton) battleship<br />
Roma amidships at a terminal velocity <strong>of</strong> about<br />
330 metres (1080 feet) per second, punching straight<br />
through her bottom to explode beneath the ship. A<br />
second hit her just forward <strong>of</strong> the bridge, where her
armoured deck slowed it down fractionally, so that it<br />
exploded in the forward magazine beneath. She broke<br />
in two <strong>and</strong> sank within 40 minutes, carrying 1255<br />
men down with her, including the comm<strong>and</strong>ing admiral,<br />
Bergamini. Her sister-ship the Italia was also hit<br />
by a missile which passed through the deck <strong>and</strong> side<br />
just forward <strong>of</strong> 'A' turret (ie, the most forward turret)<br />
before exploding in the sea. She took in 800 tonnes<br />
(787 tons) <strong>of</strong> water, but managed to make Malta,<br />
though she played no further part in the war.<br />
More successes followed. On 11 September, the<br />
10,000 tonne (9842-ton) American cruiser USS<br />
Savannah was disabled, as, two days later, was HMS<br />
Ug<strong>and</strong>a (8500 tonnes; 8365 tons). Better still was the<br />
attack Jope himself carried out on the 33,000-tonne<br />
(32,478-ton) British battleship HMS <strong>War</strong>spite, which<br />
was giving fire support <strong>of</strong>f the Salerno beaches. The<br />
missile hit the <strong>War</strong>spite amidships, <strong>and</strong> penetrated six<br />
decks before exploding against the bottom <strong>of</strong> the ship,<br />
blowing a large hole in her. She took in a total <strong>of</strong> 5000<br />
tonnes (4921 tons) <strong>of</strong> water, lost steam (<strong>and</strong> thus all<br />
power, both to the ship herself <strong>and</strong> to all her systems),<br />
<strong>and</strong> had to be taken in tow. She reached Malta but was<br />
out <strong>of</strong> action for the next 12 months. The British<br />
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The Ruhrstahl X-1, also known as the Tritz-X', was<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the least sophisticated air-to-surface weapons, but<br />
one <strong>of</strong> the most successful. On 9 September 1943, two <strong>of</strong><br />
these guided bombs sank the Italian battleship Roma.<br />
cruiser HMS Spartan <strong>and</strong> the destroyer HMS Janus<br />
were also sunk by X-ls, <strong>and</strong> the American cruiser<br />
USS Philadelphia was badly damaged.<br />
THEHENSCHELHs293<br />
The Ruhrstahl X-1 development programme began at<br />
around the same time that Wagner's team at Henschel<br />
began work on the Hs 293. Surprisingly, development<br />
took longer, but it proved to be much simpler to train<br />
aircrew to 'fly' the bomb than the missile, <strong>and</strong> the two<br />
were eventually deployed together. Initially, the RLM<br />
had tried to persuade Henschel to produce a missile<br />
which levelled out just above the water some distance<br />
before reaching the target, <strong>and</strong> another which would<br />
actually submerge <strong>and</strong> act like a conventional torpedo,<br />
but the company refused on the grounds that such<br />
a course would be too ambitious, since there was no<br />
experience on which to draw. Instead, it put forward<br />
the concept <strong>of</strong> a straightforward guided glider bomb,
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
FOCKE-WULF Fw 200C-6<br />
Type: Long-range maritime<br />
reconnaissance bomber<br />
Length: 23.85m (76.96ft)<br />
Span: 32.84m (107.79ft)<br />
unpowered but with aerodynamic properties, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
RLM agreed. The first experimental version, with no<br />
warhead, was tested in the spring <strong>of</strong> 1940, <strong>and</strong> by the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> the year a variant with a rocket motor, which<br />
allowed launch at 400m (1315ft) instead <strong>of</strong> the<br />
1000m (3280ft) previously required, had been flown<br />
successfully, <strong>and</strong> plans for a production version <strong>of</strong> the<br />
latter were going ahead.<br />
10 SECONDS OF THRUST<br />
The Hs 293A-1 was built up from the nose <strong>and</strong> body<br />
sections <strong>of</strong> an SC (Sprengbombe Cylindrisch) 500<br />
thin-walled bomb, with an elongated rear section<br />
tapering in the vertical plane, which extended above<br />
<strong>and</strong> below the body unequally to form small dorsal<br />
<strong>and</strong> larger ventral fins, carrying the guidance system.<br />
Short symmetrical wings with conventional ailerons<br />
were mounted where the bomb <strong>and</strong> tail section joined,<br />
<strong>and</strong> a tailplane with an equally conventional elevator<br />
was mounted just above <strong>their</strong> plane, where it would<br />
operate in clear air. The ailerons were actuated by<br />
electromagnets; the elevator by an electric motor <strong>and</strong><br />
worm screw. The rocket motor - a liquid-propellant<br />
Walter 109-507B, using T-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Z-St<strong>of</strong>f held in<br />
pressurised tanks - was underslung beneath the fuselage<br />
in a pod; it gave only 600kg (13001b) <strong>of</strong> thrust for<br />
10 seconds, but that was enough to propel the missile<br />
well ahead <strong>of</strong> the aircraft to a point where the bomb<br />
aimer could see it. This had been a recurring problem<br />
with the X-l, <strong>and</strong> one which could only be solved by<br />
the pilot <strong>of</strong> the launch aircraft throttling back <strong>and</strong><br />
lowering his flaps until the aircraft almost stalled,<br />
which made him very vulnerable indeed.<br />
The flight pr<strong>of</strong>ile <strong>of</strong> the Hs 293 was quite different<br />
from that <strong>of</strong> the X-l. It was normally released at<br />
between 400m (1315ft) <strong>and</strong> 2000m (6560ft), <strong>and</strong><br />
94<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 22,700kg (50,044lb)<br />
Max speed: 360km/h (224mph) at 4700m (15,420ft)<br />
Range: 3560km (2211 miles)<br />
Payload: 2 x Hs 293A guided missiles<br />
Above: One <strong>of</strong> the German aircraft equipped to employ the<br />
Hs 293 rocket-propelled guided bomb was the long-range<br />
Focke-Wulf Fw 200 'Condor'. Two missiles could be<br />
carried, under the outboard engine nacelles.<br />
between 3.5km (2.2 miles) <strong>and</strong> 18km (11 miles) short<br />
<strong>of</strong> the target. The terminal velocity varied between<br />
435km/h (270mph) <strong>and</strong> 900km/h (560mph) depending<br />
on the altitude from which it had been released.<br />
Control, as always, was by joystick <strong>and</strong> radio link, on<br />
the Kehl/Strassburg system, but wire linkage was<br />
soon proposed <strong>and</strong> implemented, this time using a<br />
duplex bobbin system, with the wire being paid out<br />
from aircraft <strong>and</strong> missile simultaneously, giving a<br />
maximum range <strong>of</strong> 30km (18.7 miles). As with the X-<br />
1, flares in the tail - which were exchanged for small<br />
battery-powered lamps for night operations - allowed<br />
the bomb-aimer to keep track <strong>of</strong> the missile in flight.<br />
A version <strong>of</strong> the basic weapon, with an extended<br />
nose to contain a television camera, was developed as<br />
the Hs 293D. The television equipment was developed<br />
by Fernseh GmbH in collaboration with the<br />
Reichspost-Forschungsanstalt. It was a vertical rasterscan<br />
224-line system operating at 50Hz. Under ideal<br />
(laboratory) conditions, with its inventors to operate<br />
it, the system worked adequately enough, but under<br />
operational conditions it was much less successful<br />
<strong>and</strong> was finally ab<strong>and</strong>oned. Such technology was not<br />
yet fully understood, <strong>and</strong> it was to be many years<br />
before it was perfected in weapons such as the American<br />
AGM-65 'Maverick' <strong>and</strong> the Anglo-French<br />
'Martel'<strong>of</strong> the 1980s.<br />
Other Hs 293 variants included the Hs 293H,<br />
which was discussed above in the context <strong>of</strong> air-to-air<br />
missiles, <strong>and</strong> the delta-winged, tailess (<strong>and</strong> stillborn)<br />
Hs 293F. It is unclear how many Hs 293s <strong>of</strong> all types
DORNIER Do 217E-5<br />
Type: Four-seat anti-shipping bomber<br />
Length: 18.20m (60.00ft)<br />
Span: 19.00m (62.33ft)<br />
Max take-<strong>of</strong>f weight: 16,465kg (36,299lb)<br />
Max speed: 515km/h (320mph) at 5200m<br />
(17,060ft)<br />
were manufactured, but educated guesses put the<br />
number at perhaps 1500, many <strong>of</strong> which were<br />
expended in the long testing <strong>and</strong> training programme.<br />
THE HS 293 IN ACTION<br />
<strong>II</strong> Gruppe <strong>of</strong> Kampfgeschwader 100, flying Hs 293 Aequipped<br />
Do 217E-5s out <strong>of</strong> Cognac under Hauptmann<br />
Heinz Molinus, was the first unit to go into<br />
Range: 2300km (1429 miles)<br />
Payload: 2 x Hs 293A guided missiles<br />
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: Somewhat more successful than the Fw 200 was<br />
the Dornier Do 217E-5, which also carried two Hs 293As<br />
under its wings. It was one <strong>of</strong> these aircraft, <strong>of</strong> I I/KG 100,<br />
which scored the first success with the new weapon,<br />
Below: The bomb-aimer needed to keep the Hs 293 in<br />
sight all the way to the target, <strong>and</strong> for this purpose a<br />
multi-tube flare unit was attached to the bomb's tail.
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The bomb-aimer controlled the Hs 293 using a<br />
two-axis joystick which transmitted signals either by radio<br />
or over wires. This installation is in an He 111H-12.<br />
action armed with guided air-to-surface missiles, on<br />
25 August 1943, against warships hunting German<br />
submarines in the Bay <strong>of</strong> Biscay. The first-ever kill<br />
with a guided missile came on 27 August, when one<br />
scored a direct hit on the 1270-tonne (1250-ton) sloop<br />
(ie, corvette) HMS Egret, detonating the ammunition<br />
96<br />
in her after magazine <strong>and</strong> blowing her to pieces with<br />
the loss <strong>of</strong> 222 lives. In fact, <strong>II</strong>/KG100 later moved to<br />
Tstres, near Marseilles, <strong>and</strong> <strong>II</strong>/KG40, equipped with<br />
He 177A-5s, replaced it on the Atlantic coast. Besides<br />
the Egret, Hs 293s accounted for five destroyers <strong>and</strong> a<br />
number <strong>of</strong> merchant ships before the Allies found a<br />
way to combat them using a set <strong>of</strong> defensive tactics<br />
which included jamming the radio control signals <strong>and</strong><br />
targeting the launch aircraft during the vulnerable<br />
control phase, when they had to fly straight <strong>and</strong> level
at reduced speed. These defensive tactics made the<br />
missions very costly. On 23 November, <strong>II</strong>/KG40 lost<br />
half its entire strength while attacking a well-protected<br />
convoy <strong>of</strong>f the Algerian coast. Hs 293s were last<br />
used in action, with some success, against Red Army<br />
forces crossing the River Oder in April 1945, when<br />
they went into action with 'Mistel' (qv) piggyback<br />
hybrid aircraft.<br />
THE BLOHM & VOSS ASMS<br />
Blohm & Voss reacted to the RLM's requirement for<br />
a sea-skimming missile with a proposal for a guided<br />
glider bomb. This incorporated a rocket motor which<br />
was only ignited by tripping a 2m- (6.5ft-) long lever<br />
hanging from its underside when the bomb came to<br />
the end <strong>of</strong> its descent. It was an ingenious solution,<br />
but proved to be unworkable. The length <strong>of</strong> time<br />
available to initiate the rocket motor was just insufficient,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the prototypes simply ploughed into the<br />
sea. Rather better conceived was the Bv 246<br />
'Hagelkorn' ('Hailstone'), which was a pure glider<br />
<strong>and</strong> was intended specifically to attack radio stations<br />
transmitting navigational signals to RAF bombers by<br />
homing in on <strong>their</strong> very signals. The Bv 246 was a<br />
simple aerodynamic shape with a cruciform empennage<br />
incorporating a vertical control surface, <strong>and</strong> high<br />
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
aspect-ratio wings designed to give it a shallow glide<br />
angle (1:25, or barely 4 degrees) <strong>and</strong> thus a long range<br />
after launch. Released at 10,500m (34,450ft), it had a<br />
range <strong>of</strong> 210km (130 miles). The original proposal<br />
was made in 1942, but there was little <strong>of</strong>ficial interest<br />
despite the fact that the RAF had already begun to use<br />
radio as a navigational aid. It was December 1943<br />
before 'Hagelkorn' was ordered into production <strong>and</strong> it<br />
was cancelled two months later in the February 1944<br />
austerity drive, by which time hundreds had been<br />
built. These missiles were gradually expended in a<br />
protracted low-priority test programme which lasted<br />
until January 1945. With an all-up weight <strong>of</strong> 730kg<br />
(16001b), <strong>of</strong> which 435kg (9601b) was warhead, it was<br />
light enough to be deployed by an Fw 190.<br />
FLYING TORPEDOES<br />
The RLM did not give up its search for an air-to-subsurface<br />
weapon, <strong>and</strong> Henschel responded eventually<br />
with a variety <strong>of</strong> designs for what we may regard as<br />
guided air-launched torpedoes. The simplest <strong>of</strong> these<br />
Below: The Blohm & Voss Bv 143 was a rocket-assisted<br />
glider bomb, the powerplant <strong>of</strong> which was ignited only<br />
when the projectile had come within 2m (6.5ft) <strong>of</strong> the<br />
surface <strong>of</strong> the sea.
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The Dornier Do 217 was the aircraft <strong>of</strong> choice for<br />
the deployment <strong>of</strong> the Henschel Hs 294 anti-ship missile.<br />
Perhaps 1450 <strong>of</strong> these sophisticated guided missiles were<br />
ordered but few were completed.<br />
98<br />
Below: This sequence shows a launch <strong>of</strong> an Hs 294 which<br />
went disastrously wrong. Having disengaged from the<br />
parent Do 217 aircraft, the missile then collided with the<br />
bomber, slicing <strong>of</strong>f a tail fin.
HENSCHEL Hs 294<br />
Type: Rocket-propelled anti-ship missile<br />
Length: 6.12m (20.08ft)<br />
Span: 4.025m (13.21ft)<br />
Total weight: 2170kg (4784lb)<br />
was a version <strong>of</strong> the Hs 293, <strong>and</strong> from that, in 1943,<br />
sprang the larger <strong>and</strong> more powerful Hs 294, intended<br />
to be used to attack armoured ships. Two versions<br />
were produced in prototype form, one with radio<br />
guidance, the other with a wire comm<strong>and</strong> link.<br />
The Hs 294 was essentially <strong>of</strong> the same form as the<br />
air-to-surface missile, with the addition <strong>of</strong> a long,<br />
tapered nose cone <strong>and</strong> a second rocket unit. It was to<br />
be flown into the sea at a shallow angle (optimum 22<br />
degrees); the wings <strong>and</strong> the rear fuselage were mounted<br />
so that they would break away on hitting the water,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the warhead, with its 656kg (14451b) explosive<br />
charge, would then be free to travel in a parabolic<br />
path, induced by the form <strong>of</strong> its upper surface, for up<br />
to 45m (150ft), self-destructing if it had not found its<br />
target. It is believed that a total <strong>of</strong> around 1450 were<br />
ordered, but few were produced.<br />
The Hs 294 was followed by a rather more ambitious<br />
project known as the GT 1200, which certainly<br />
did not get past the prototype stage. GT 1200 was to<br />
have been an unpowered glider, with the guidance<br />
Max speed: 860km/h (534mph)<br />
Range: 4-14km (2.5-8.7 miles)<br />
Payload: 656kg (1445lb) <strong>of</strong> explosives<br />
AIR-TO-SURFACE MISSILES<br />
Above: The Hs 294 was intended to enter the water<br />
cleanly some way from its target <strong>and</strong> strike it below the<br />
waterline, where it was at its most vulnerable.<br />
package <strong>of</strong> the Hs 293, but without a rocket motor to<br />
assist its launch. Instead, the rocket motor, a st<strong>and</strong>ard<br />
Schmidding solid-fuel unit, was to have been used<br />
only during the last phase <strong>of</strong> its deployment, underwater,<br />
when, shorn <strong>of</strong> its wings <strong>and</strong> 'fuselage' extension,<br />
it became an otherwise conventional torpedo,<br />
steered by small rudders on its cruciform rear-mounted<br />
fins. There is no indication <strong>of</strong> how the missile was<br />
to have been guided during its run through the water.<br />
Hensehel's last foray into the field <strong>of</strong> air-launched<br />
submarine weapons was to have been a supersonic<br />
missile known as the 'Zitterrochen' (Torpedo Fish'),<br />
its triangular planform wings incorporating 'Wagner<br />
bars' - simply spoilers moved to the wing trailing<br />
edge - instead <strong>of</strong> ailerons. The project never got <strong>of</strong>f<br />
the ground, but the control system found its way into<br />
the Hs 117 'Schmetterling' <strong>and</strong> the Hs 298.<br />
99
CHAPTER EIGHT<br />
Surface-to-Air<br />
Missiles<br />
In parallel with the programmes to develop air-to-air <strong>and</strong> air-to-surface missiles,<br />
German scientists <strong>and</strong> engineers also strove to produce guided surface-to-air<br />
missiles (SAMs). Work first began in 1941, but yet again, progress was overtaken by<br />
events; the first usable missiles were due to go into service in mid-1945, but by then<br />
the war was already over.<br />
Finding ways to defeat the Allied bomber formations<br />
which pounded the Reich preoccupied the<br />
Luftwaffe <strong>and</strong> the RLM alike. As a result, a number<br />
<strong>of</strong> teams were at work developing new weapons. Most<br />
important amongst these were the more-or-less successful<br />
jet <strong>and</strong> rocket-powered aircraft we have<br />
already discussed. However, much energy <strong>and</strong><br />
resources went into developing surface-to-air missiles<br />
(SAMs) too, amongst the most significant <strong>of</strong> which<br />
Above: The Messerschmitt 'Enzian' was made largely <strong>of</strong><br />
plywood <strong>and</strong> flew at subsonic speeds.<br />
Left: Like the 'Enzian', the 'Wasserfall' relied on blast<br />
effects; its warhead was detonated by an artillery fuze.<br />
were the Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling'<br />
('Butterfly'), the Messerschmitt 'Enzian' ('Gentian'),<br />
the Rheinmetall-Borsig 'Rheintochter' ('Rhine<br />
Maiden'), <strong>and</strong> the BMW 'Wasserfall' ('Waterfall') -<br />
all <strong>of</strong> which had a guidance system - <strong>and</strong> the BMW<br />
Taifun' (Typhoon'), which was unguided.<br />
THE HENSCHEL Hs 117 'SCHMETTERLING'<br />
The earliest <strong>of</strong> the projects was for a subsonic shortto-medium-range<br />
missile which was radio controlled<br />
by an operator on the ground. Henschel first began<br />
work on the project in 1941, alongside a number <strong>of</strong><br />
unguided flak rockets, <strong>and</strong> two years later was<br />
ordered to develop it as the Hs 117. With stubby<br />
swept-back wings <strong>and</strong> a cruciform tail, the Hs 117<br />
1 m
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES<br />
'Schmetterling' was controlled like an aircraft, with<br />
solenoid-operated 'Wagner bars' rather than conventional<br />
ailerons on the trailing edges <strong>of</strong> the wings <strong>and</strong><br />
tailplane. It appeared somewhat unbalanced, having a<br />
bifurcated nose, with the starboard cone elongated to<br />
form a warhead extension <strong>and</strong> the port cone finishing<br />
in a small airscrew driving a generator. Launch power<br />
was supplied by a pair <strong>of</strong> external solid-fuel motors,<br />
one above <strong>and</strong> one below the fuselage, which gave<br />
1750kg (38501b) <strong>of</strong> boost for four seconds, accelerating<br />
the missile to 1100km/h (680mph) before falling<br />
away <strong>and</strong> igniting the sustaincr motor. The motor was<br />
to have been either a BMW 109-558 or a Walter 109-<br />
729, both <strong>of</strong> which used liquid fuel - R-St<strong>of</strong>f or<br />
Tonka', a composite self-igniting fuel, with SV-St<strong>of</strong>f<br />
(concentrated nitric acid) as an oxidizer in the former;<br />
SV-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Br-St<strong>of</strong>f (low-octane petrol), with an<br />
alcohol igniter, in the latter.<br />
LAUNCHING THE 'SCHMETTERLING'<br />
At 4.3m (14ft) long <strong>and</strong> weighing a total <strong>of</strong> 420kg<br />
(9251b) including the solid-fuel motors, the<br />
'Schmetterling' was launched from a modified antiaircraft<br />
gun mounting, azimuth <strong>and</strong> elevation being<br />
approximately pre-set manually by the launch crew.<br />
102<br />
Once in flight, a flare in the tail was ignited, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
controller observed its progress through a telescope,<br />
correcting by radio using the Kehl/Strassburg system<br />
codenamed Tarsival' (FuG203/230), which was also<br />
widely used for other operator-guided missiles,<br />
employing four separate radio frequencies, two for<br />
the horizontal axis <strong>and</strong> two for the vertical. Control<br />
was by a simple joystick. A fifth radio frequency was<br />
used to detonate the 25kg (551b) warhead, which<br />
relied on blast rather than fragmentation, on comm<strong>and</strong>,<br />
though proximitiy <strong>and</strong> time delay fuzes were<br />
also developed. The effective range was 16km (10<br />
miles) <strong>and</strong> the ceiling was 1 1,000m (36,000ft). In<br />
blind conditions it was hoped to employ the<br />
Mannheim-Reise/'Rheingold' radar system, which<br />
worked something like the Würzburg fighter control<br />
system, one set tracking the target, the other the missile;<br />
the operator would use the joystick as before, but<br />
would now be observing dots on a cathode ray tube,<br />
<strong>and</strong> trying to keep them superimposed. Later, it was<br />
hoped, corrections would be applied automatically.<br />
Below: The Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling' was the first<br />
attempt by Germany to develop a surface-to-air missile; it<br />
was for use against low- <strong>and</strong> medium-altitude intruders.
MENSCH EL Hs 117<br />
Type: Rocket-propelled surface-to-air missile<br />
Length: 4.29m (14ft)<br />
Diameter: 350mm (13.77in)<br />
Testing <strong>of</strong> the 'Schmetterling' began in May 1944,<br />
<strong>and</strong> by September, 22 launches had been made, some<br />
<strong>of</strong> them <strong>of</strong> a variant intended as an air-to-air missile,<br />
the Hs 117H (qv). The success rate was good enough<br />
that the missile was ordered into production in<br />
December, with first deliveries - 150 units per month<br />
- to take place in March 1945, rising to 3000 per<br />
month by November. This was hopelessly optimistic,<br />
<strong>of</strong> course, at a time when industrial output in<br />
Germany was failing fast, <strong>and</strong> no missile was ever<br />
produced for operational use.<br />
THE MESSERSCHMITT 'ENZIAN'<br />
Messerschmitt's proposal resembled an unmanned<br />
version <strong>of</strong> the Me 163 'Komet', with the same stubby<br />
body <strong>and</strong> wings <strong>and</strong> the twin ventral/dorsal tail fins. It<br />
was considerably heavier than the 'Schmetterling' at<br />
1800kg (39701b), had a 300kg (6601b) warhead, <strong>and</strong><br />
was designed to operate at up to 12,000m (41,000ft)<br />
or out to a range <strong>of</strong> 24.5km (15.25 miles) at lower<br />
levels. One most important feature <strong>of</strong> the 'Enzian'<br />
was the fact that its airframe was to be constructed <strong>of</strong><br />
moulded plywood, a material Germany had in abundance,<br />
<strong>and</strong> this was almost - but not quite - enough to<br />
give it sufficient <strong>of</strong>ficial approval points to actually<br />
see it into production, especially since it used technology<br />
which was well understood.<br />
The 'Enzian', originally the Flak Rakete l, was<br />
designed from June 1943 by a team led by Hermann<br />
Wurster at Messerschmitt's R&D headquarters at<br />
Oberammergau, with prototypes to be produced at<br />
Augsburg <strong>and</strong> serial airframe manufacture to be carried<br />
out at Holzbau Kissing AG, in nearby Sonth<strong>of</strong>en.<br />
Launch weight: 445kg (981 Ib)<br />
Max range: 32km (20 miles}<br />
<strong>War</strong>head: 25kg (55lb) <strong>of</strong> high explosive<br />
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES<br />
Above: The Henschel Hs 117 'Schmetterling' surface-toair<br />
missile. The Hs 117 was also produced in an air-to-air<br />
version which lacked the SAM's external boosters.<br />
Like the 'Komet', it had a circular-section fuselage,<br />
0.9m (3ft) in maximum diameter; it also had ventral<br />
<strong>and</strong> dorsal fins <strong>and</strong> mid-mounted swept-back wings<br />
with full-width elevons, which operated in unison or<br />
independently <strong>and</strong> thus obviated the need for a rudder.<br />
Launch power was provided by four Schmidding<br />
109-533 diglycol-fuelled rockets, the same as that<br />
employed for the 'Schmetterling', which gave a combined<br />
thrust <strong>of</strong> 7000kg (15,40015) for four seconds<br />
<strong>and</strong> were then jettisoned. The launch platform consisted<br />
<strong>of</strong> 6.8m (22.25ft) rails on a modified 8.8cm<br />
anti-aircraft gun mounting, which could <strong>of</strong> course be<br />
trained in azimuth <strong>and</strong> elevation. The sustainer rocket<br />
was to have been a Walter R1-210B, using SV-St<strong>of</strong>f<br />
<strong>and</strong> Br-St<strong>of</strong>f as its fuel, delivered to the combustion<br />
chamber by a pair <strong>of</strong> steam-driven turbo-pumps as<br />
employed in the A4. About 15 <strong>of</strong> these motors are<br />
thought to have been produced, <strong>and</strong> they were used to<br />
test the prototype missiles, but for the production version<br />
a simplified motor was designed by Drs Konrad<br />
<strong>and</strong> Beck <strong>of</strong> the Deutsches Versuchsanstalt für<br />
Kraftfahrzeug- und Fahrzeugmotoren (DVK - the<br />
German Aviation Propulsion Experimental<br />
Establishment), which used S-St<strong>of</strong>f <strong>and</strong> Visol delivered<br />
by compressed air, <strong>and</strong> in its final form gave the<br />
slightly higher performance figures <strong>of</strong> 2500kg<br />
(55101b) <strong>of</strong> thrust falling to 1500kg (33001b) by the<br />
end <strong>of</strong> its 56-second burn time. The reducing thrust<br />
ensured that the missile did not exceed its maximum<br />
03
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES<br />
Mach number <strong>and</strong> become unstable. Guidance was<br />
exactly the same as for the 'Schmetterling' <strong>and</strong> the<br />
same sort <strong>of</strong> proximity fuze was to have been used.<br />
Perhaps 60 'Enzian' missiles were constructed, <strong>of</strong><br />
which 38 were tested, beginning in April 1944. The<br />
first examples fared badly because the designers had<br />
not grasped the importance <strong>of</strong> aligning the missile's<br />
axial centre <strong>of</strong> gravity <strong>and</strong> thrust lines, but that was<br />
cured, <strong>and</strong> later tests proved successful. The 'Enzian'<br />
fell foul <strong>of</strong> the general deterioration in manufacturing<br />
capacity, <strong>and</strong> as there was concern at RLM that it was<br />
detracting from the production <strong>of</strong> Me 163s <strong>and</strong> Me<br />
262s, in January 1945 the project was axed.<br />
THE RHEINMETALL-BORSIG MISSILES<br />
Although successful with its unguided 'Rheinbote'<br />
bombardment missiles, Rheinmetall-Borsig achieved<br />
less with its surface-to-air missiles. The company's<br />
first foray into the field was a winged missile called<br />
the 'Hecht' ('Pike'), which seems to have been no<br />
more than a design <strong>and</strong> concept-proving exercise;<br />
several are known to have been air-dropped, both in<br />
powered <strong>and</strong> unpowered forms. Work on it stopped in<br />
1941, when the 'Feuerlilie' project was initiated; it<br />
MESSERSCHMITT 'ENZIAN'<br />
Type: Rocket-propelled surface-to-air missile<br />
Length: 2.4m (7.875ft)<br />
Diameter: 0.88m (2.9ft)<br />
104<br />
seems that this, too, was to have been purely a<br />
research programme, but the RLM insisted that it be<br />
adaptable to use as an anti-aircraft rocket, should that<br />
prove necessary. Even though there is no evidence<br />
that that step was taken, <strong>and</strong> the missile was unguided,<br />
we may include it here in passing.<br />
The 'Firelily' was to have a streamlined cylindrical<br />
fuselage with rear-mounted swept-back wings terminating<br />
in small symmetrical fins. It was to have been<br />
produced in a number <strong>of</strong> versions <strong>of</strong> different fuselage<br />
diameter, the most important <strong>of</strong> which were the<br />
F25 <strong>and</strong> the F55, <strong>and</strong> was to have been propelled by<br />
solid-fuel rockets which the company already had in<br />
production as take-<strong>of</strong>f assistance units (RATO) for<br />
gliders <strong>and</strong> heavily-loaded transport aircraft, though<br />
there was also a plan to produce a supersonic version<br />
<strong>of</strong> the 55cm missile, with simple fins in place <strong>of</strong> the<br />
wing assembly, to be powered by a Konrad-designed<br />
liquid-fuel rocket. The 'Firelily' project continued<br />
Below: In looks, 'Enzian' resembled the Messerschmitt<br />
Me 163 'Komet' rocket plane. Like all liquid-fuelled<br />
rockets, most <strong>of</strong> the internal space <strong>of</strong> the 'Enzian'was<br />
taken up with fuel tanks.<br />
Launch weight: 1800kg (3970lb)<br />
Max range: 24.5km (15.25 miles)<br />
<strong>War</strong>head: 300kg (660lb) <strong>of</strong> explosives
until early 1945, but it seems clear that no attempt<br />
was ever made to utilise the missiles as weapons.<br />
Several F25s were manufactured <strong>and</strong> were tested at<br />
Peenemunde-West <strong>and</strong> at the company's own proving<br />
grounds at Leba, but certainly no operational variant<br />
was ever produced. Perhaps six F55s were produced;<br />
one was tested successfully at Leba, <strong>and</strong> two were<br />
sent to Peenemünde, where the one went out <strong>of</strong> control<br />
when launched.<br />
The 'Rhine Maiden' was an entirely different matter.<br />
It was conceived from the outset as an anti-aircraft<br />
missile. It was an ambitious design incorporating two<br />
stages: the cylindrical first stage housed nothing but<br />
solid-fuel booster rockets, <strong>and</strong> had four fixed, sweptback<br />
fins with bracing struts between them, which<br />
acted simply as stabilisers, being jettisoned on burnout;<br />
the second stage, also cylindrical, tapered to a<br />
point at the nose <strong>and</strong> slightly at the tail, <strong>and</strong> had six<br />
fixed fins mounted about two-thirds the way back<br />
from' the nose, <strong>and</strong> four small rounded steering surfaces<br />
- canards, in effect - at the nose itself, which<br />
were actuated by servos to guide the rocket in flight.<br />
Unusually, the warhead was situated in the rear <strong>of</strong> the<br />
rocket, behind the fins <strong>and</strong> motor unit, the six venturi<br />
<strong>of</strong> which were positioned between the fins, angled<br />
out, which also worked to help stabilise the missile in<br />
flight. 'Rheintochter F was intended to reach speeds<br />
<strong>of</strong> almost 1300km/h (SOOmph), <strong>and</strong> carry a<br />
100-150kg (220-3301b) warload to 40km (25 miles)<br />
<strong>and</strong> 6000m (19,700ft). The missile had a lengthy<br />
Above: Rheinmetall was better known for its artillery<br />
pieces, but its 'Rheintochter' SAM was an ambitious<br />
design intended to fly at up to 1300km/h (SOOmph).<br />
development period. The contract was signed in<br />
November 1942, but by late 1944 only a relatively<br />
small number - perhaps 50 - had been launched, less<br />
than half <strong>of</strong> which carried guidance equipment that<br />
was essentially similar to that incorporated in<br />
'Schmetterling' <strong>and</strong> 'Enzian' <strong>and</strong> in the more successful<br />
guided glide bombs. At the year's end, the<br />
project was ab<strong>and</strong>oned, the missile never having<br />
come close to reaching its design altitude.<br />
It seems that the development team had known all<br />
along that the RATO units would never produce the<br />
required performance, <strong>and</strong> had planned to power the<br />
production version <strong>of</strong> the missile, known as<br />
'Rheintochter <strong>II</strong>I', with a version <strong>of</strong> the same Konraddesigned<br />
liquid-fuel rocket which was to go into the<br />
supersonic 'Feuerlilie', though a version with a<br />
much-enlarged solid-fuel rocket was also proposed.<br />
This was, in fact, the only version <strong>of</strong> the<br />
'Rheintochter <strong>II</strong>P ever tested.<br />
THE EMW'WASSERFALL<br />
Although Wernher von Braun worked for the German<br />
Army, <strong>and</strong> anti-aircraft defences were the responsibility<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Luftwaffe, EMW was ordered to produce an<br />
anti-aircraft guided missile. Most <strong>of</strong> the necessary<br />
work had already been done in developing the A4,<br />
105
Above: The 'Rheintochter' 1 on its launch ramp. Guidance<br />
was provided by the small vanes at the nose, which were<br />
controlled from the ground via radio signals.<br />
<strong>and</strong> the chief difference between 'Wasserfall' - as the<br />
surface-to-air missile was known - <strong>and</strong> the A4 was to<br />
be in its propulsion plant. From the outset it was clear<br />
that the operational requirements for the two rockets<br />
were quite different. Whereas A4 could be fuelled as<br />
<strong>and</strong> when required, in a more or less leisurely fashion,<br />
<strong>and</strong> fired when it was ready, the SAM would be<br />
required to be held at instant readiness, perhaps for<br />
months, <strong>and</strong> this was simply not practical if a cryogenic<br />
propellant like liquid oxygen was employed.<br />
Instead, it would be fuelled by Salbei (90 per cent<br />
nitric acid, 10 per cent sulphuric acid to inhibit corrosion)<br />
<strong>and</strong> a type <strong>of</strong> Visol, the fuel - which ignited<br />
spontaneously on being combined - being delivered<br />
to the combustion chamber by pressurising the propellant<br />
tanks with inert nitrogen, rather than by using<br />
cumbersome high-pressure steam turbines. Because<br />
the two components <strong>of</strong> the fuel reacted so violently,<br />
pre-launch <strong>and</strong> launch-time safety procedures very<br />
important, <strong>and</strong> there was an elaborate system <strong>of</strong> interlocks<br />
involving metal membranes which would rupture<br />
only in predetermined circumstances.<br />
'WasserfaU' was about half the length <strong>of</strong> the A4, at<br />
7.84m (25.7ft), <strong>and</strong> weighed 3500kg (77201b) all-up,<br />
as opposed to 12,900kg (28,4401b), but it was still by<br />
far the biggest <strong>of</strong> all the German surface-to-air<br />
106<br />
weapons, even though its warhead was smaller, at<br />
235kg (5201b), than that <strong>of</strong> the 'Enzian'. It was very<br />
similar in shape to the bigger missile, but unlike the<br />
A4 it had four stabilising fins located about one third<br />
the way back from the nose.<br />
35 TEST LAUNCHES<br />
'Wasserfair was designed to operate at greater range<br />
<strong>and</strong> altitude than the other SAMs. Its 8000kg-<br />
(17,6301b-) thrust engine burned for 40 seconds <strong>and</strong><br />
gave it a range <strong>of</strong> up to 50km (30 miles) <strong>and</strong> an altitude<br />
<strong>of</strong> 20,000m (65,000ft), even though the latter<br />
was far higher than any aircraft attained. Its guidance<br />
system was manual <strong>and</strong> ground-based, with course<br />
corrections transmitted to the rocket by radio signals,<br />
but since it was launched vertically, it also carried the<br />
A4's basic inertial guidance system, to point it in the<br />
approximate direction <strong>of</strong> the target. It is difficult to<br />
imagine visual tracking <strong>and</strong> control being at all effective<br />
at anything like extreme range <strong>and</strong> altitude, <strong>and</strong><br />
given its high launch speed, guiding it manually at all,<br />
whether through a sighting telescope or by superimposing<br />
dots on an oscilloscope, generated by tracking<br />
radars, must have presented problems. The first successful<br />
launch occurred at Peenemiinde on 29<br />
February 1944, <strong>and</strong> it is believed that about 35 test<br />
launches were made in total. Series production was to<br />
have been at the biggest underground factory <strong>of</strong> them<br />
all, Bleichrode, but in the event even the factory itself<br />
had not been built when the war ended in May 1945.
THE UNGUIDED 'TAIFUN'<br />
By mid-1944, there were many in Germany who<br />
advocated cancelling the <strong>of</strong>fensive weapons development<br />
programme completely in order to concentrate<br />
on developing more effective defensive measures, but<br />
<strong>of</strong> course Adolf Hitler was not one <strong>of</strong> them, <strong>and</strong> what<br />
he said still went. The 'Aggregat' programme certainly<br />
got priority at Peenemünde, <strong>and</strong> since the same<br />
team was working on 'Wasserfall', that inevitably<br />
meant that the latter lost out because resources were<br />
not available. The A4 got into production, while<br />
'Wasserfall' did not. Tn fact, there was not even a clear<br />
consensus in favour <strong>of</strong> 'Wasserfall', or even general<br />
acceptance <strong>of</strong> its desirability. Some at BMW even<br />
advocated scrapping 'Wasserfall' (on the grounds that<br />
it would never work successfully without an automatic<br />
guidance system) <strong>and</strong> concentrating on a simpler,<br />
unguided flak rocket.<br />
A design for just such a missile was put forward by<br />
the Range Officer at Peenemünde, an engineer named<br />
Scheufein, <strong>and</strong> was - perhaps somewhat surprisingly,<br />
considering all the other dem<strong>and</strong>s being put on that<br />
establishment - ordered into development in<br />
September 1944 as the Taifun' ('Typhoon'). The first<br />
examples used solid-fuel motors, but it soon became<br />
apparent that they would not reach the desired height<br />
(the 'Rheintochter' development team was having the<br />
same problem, we may recall), <strong>and</strong> liquid propellants<br />
Salbei <strong>and</strong> Visol were used instead. They were stored<br />
in concentric cylindrical tanks, which made up the<br />
body <strong>of</strong> the missile, <strong>and</strong> forced into the combustion<br />
SURFACE-TO-AIR MISSILES<br />
chamber by nitrogen under pressure, a cunningly<br />
designed valve ensuring that initially there was a fuelrich<br />
mixture in the chamber which allowed pressure<br />
there to build up slowly <strong>and</strong> evenly (relatively speaking<br />
since the delay between triggering <strong>and</strong> firing was<br />
one tenth <strong>of</strong> a second). This was to prove most effective,<br />
<strong>and</strong> was to make 'Taifun' surprisingly accurate<br />
even at high altitude, which meant that the warhead<br />
could be fitted with a contact or graze fuze, <strong>and</strong> needed<br />
to be no bigger than a conventional anti-aircraft<br />
artillery shell <strong>of</strong> 0.5kg (1.lib).<br />
Overall, the missile was 1.93m (6.3ft) long <strong>and</strong><br />
100mm (4in) in diameter. Tt weighed 21kg (461b)<br />
before launch, <strong>and</strong> reached a height <strong>of</strong> 15,000m<br />
(49,210ft) before falling back to earth, with a maximum<br />
velocity <strong>of</strong> 3600km/h (2235mph). It went into<br />
limited production at Peenemünde in January 1945,<br />
<strong>and</strong> an estimated 600 were completed, along with a<br />
small number <strong>of</strong> launchers (which were based, once<br />
again, on the mounting <strong>of</strong> the 8.8cm FlaK 37). Unit<br />
cost would have been very low <strong>and</strong>, at RM25, less<br />
than a third <strong>of</strong> the price <strong>of</strong> a rifle. There is no clear<br />
indication whether it was ever used operationally, <strong>and</strong><br />
no evidence to suggest that it ever brought down an<br />
aircraft, though that is certainly possible, since to the<br />
target's crew, it would have appeared that the aircraft<br />
had been hit by conventional anti-aircraft fire.<br />
Below: The 'Wasserfall' was essentially a scaled-down<br />
A4 (V2) rocket; it weighed 3.5 tonnes (3.4 tons) <strong>and</strong><br />
reached an altitude <strong>of</strong> 20km (12.5 miles}.<br />
107
CHAPTER NINE<br />
Artillery<br />
By the end <strong>of</strong> the nineteenth century, artillery pieces had already reached a very high<br />
st<strong>and</strong>ard <strong>of</strong> sophistication, being able to hit small targets at ranges <strong>of</strong> 25km<br />
(15.5 miles) <strong>and</strong> more. There was really very little left for gunmakers to do save to<br />
make them bigger <strong>and</strong> yet bigger still, <strong>and</strong> that is just what the likes <strong>of</strong> Krupp, long<br />
recognised as masters in the field, did.<br />
Germany had some success with ultra-long-range<br />
artillery during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I, notably with the socalled<br />
'Paris Gun'. The Imperial German Navy, which<br />
constructed <strong>and</strong> manned them, called them the<br />
'Kaiser Wilhelm Geschütz', <strong>and</strong> they were used sporadically<br />
from March to July 1918 during the massive<br />
<strong>and</strong> so nearly effective German counter-attack in<br />
Picardy to bombard the French capital from the<br />
region north <strong>of</strong> Soissons over 100km (60 miles) away.<br />
They were 38cm (15in) naval guns, as mounted<br />
aboard the battleships <strong>of</strong> the day, sleeved down to<br />
21cm (8.25in) with liners whose rifling consisted <strong>of</strong><br />
Above: The K5 (E), a 28cm gun mounted on a railway car,<br />
was perhaps the most successful <strong>of</strong> the 'superguns'.<br />
Left: This 38cm gun, its barrel 45 calibres long, was<br />
derived from a weapon designed for battleships.<br />
deep grooves within which lugs on the shell located,<br />
a method first adopted in the early days <strong>of</strong> the development<br />
<strong>of</strong> the rifled gun in the 1840s. This same<br />
method was to be employed in the very long-range<br />
artillery pieces developed in Germany for use in<br />
<strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> - the K5 battlefield weapons <strong>and</strong> the<br />
'strategic' K12, built to fire on Engl<strong>and</strong> from the<br />
French coast - though the shells <strong>of</strong> these guns were<br />
rather more sophisticated. Heavily over-charged, they<br />
projected <strong>their</strong> shell into the stratosphere where,<br />
meeting little air resistance, it could extend its trajectory<br />
considerably. The use <strong>of</strong> a far heavier charge than<br />
the gun had ever been designed to employ soon<br />
caused the barrel to wear out - it seems that 25cm<br />
(lOin) <strong>of</strong> rifling was destroyed with every round fired,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that a barrel's life was just 50 rounds in consequence<br />
- <strong>and</strong> it then had to be rebored or relined. The<br />
Paris Guns, with three mountings <strong>and</strong> seven barrels,<br />
109
ARTILLERY<br />
which were employed serially, fired just 303 rounds<br />
towards Paris, slightly more than half <strong>of</strong> which (183)<br />
actually l<strong>and</strong>ed within its boundaries, killing 256 <strong>and</strong><br />
wounding 620. These results made the entire project<br />
highly cost-ineffective, except in propag<strong>and</strong>a terms.<br />
Though these first-generation ultra-long-range<br />
guns were to enjoy only limited success, they did,<br />
albeit imperfectly, solve the problem <strong>of</strong> how to bombard<br />
high-value area targets with relative impunity<br />
from outside the range <strong>of</strong> counter-battery fire. In more<br />
modern times they would be sickeningly vulnerable<br />
to air attack, since they presented big targets, were<br />
hard to conceal, <strong>and</strong> impossible to move at very short<br />
notice, but in 1918, despite a huge campaign to locate<br />
them, they were never found. By the time the Allies<br />
overran the Forest <strong>of</strong> Crepy, where they were located,<br />
there was no sign <strong>of</strong> them left save <strong>their</strong> concrete<br />
emplacements. Another problem - <strong>and</strong> many said a<br />
more pressing one - remained: how to subdue organised<br />
defensive positions like the modern fortresses <strong>of</strong><br />
the Maginot Line, which ran down the French-German<br />
border, in the shortest possible time. For this, a<br />
Below: Krupp made two massive 80cm guns, 'Gustav' <strong>and</strong><br />
'Dora'; they fired a 7.1 -tonne (7-ton) anti-concrete shell<br />
32km (20 miles} but required a crew <strong>of</strong> 2000.<br />
80cm KANONE (EISENBAHN) 'SCHWERE GUSTAV<br />
Calibre: 80.0cm (31.5in)<br />
Barrel length: 28.957m (95.00ft)<br />
Weight (overall): 1,350,000kg (2,976,190lb)<br />
Weight <strong>of</strong> shell (anti-concrete): 7100kg (15,653lb)<br />
Weight <strong>of</strong> shell (high explosive): 4800kg (10,582lb)<br />
110<br />
Range (HE): 47,100m (51,510 yards<br />
task which was to be undertaken at shorter range, an<br />
approach which can almost be characterised as 'brute<br />
force <strong>and</strong> ignorance' was all that was necessary, <strong>and</strong><br />
the guns in question were no more than straightforward<br />
developments <strong>of</strong> the siege guns which were<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the first weapons deployed in 1914.<br />
'BIG BERTHA'<br />
In August <strong>of</strong> that year, the German Army advanced<br />
through Belgium in order to execute the Schlicffen<br />
Plan, sweeping through northern France to take Paris<br />
from the northwest <strong>and</strong> thus avoid the hardened<br />
defensive positions which dominated the approach<br />
routes from Germany. For the most part, <strong>and</strong> exactly<br />
as expected, they met little resistance, except from the<br />
forts surrounding the vital city <strong>of</strong> Liege, <strong>and</strong> to subdue<br />
these, they called up the big guns, the 42cm<br />
(16.5in) siege howitzers. The operation took longer<br />
than envisaged, but in the end ; Big Bertha' <strong>and</strong> her<br />
sisters, as the British came to call the guns, prevailed.<br />
They were not always to be so successful, however;<br />
they were later taken to Verdun <strong>and</strong> used against the<br />
fortress complex there to much less effect. These guns<br />
were enormous, by any definition - after all, they<br />
fired a shell which stood almost as high as a man, <strong>and</strong><br />
weighed in excess <strong>of</strong> a ton - <strong>and</strong> moving them was no
simple matter. In around 20 hours, they broke down<br />
into 172 pieces, <strong>and</strong> could then be transported on 12<br />
railway wagons. Not surprisingly (especially since it<br />
was <strong>of</strong>ten necessary to construct railway lines first)<br />
moving such monsters in <strong>and</strong> out <strong>of</strong> position was a<br />
major operation, but there was no alternative, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
sheer size <strong>of</strong> the guns was one <strong>of</strong> the most important<br />
motives for the German Army's interest in much more<br />
mobile rocketry. It had been a limiting factor in <strong>World</strong><br />
<strong>War</strong> I, <strong>and</strong> was to remain one in <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>.<br />
Bertha was the daughter <strong>of</strong> Friedrich Alfred<br />
Krupp, son <strong>of</strong> the founder <strong>of</strong> the company, <strong>and</strong> the<br />
wife <strong>of</strong> Gustav von Bohlen und Halbach. 'Big Bertha'<br />
had been manufactured by Krupp, <strong>and</strong> it was to the<br />
Essen-based company that the Heereswaffenamt<br />
(HWA - the German Army's weapons development<br />
<strong>and</strong> procurement <strong>of</strong>fice) turned in the mid-1930s<br />
when it realised that while the 'new' strategy <strong>of</strong> war,<br />
the Blitzkrieg, once more placed the emphasis on<br />
movement, there would still inevitably be fortresses<br />
to subdue. In response to the HWA's request, Krupp's<br />
engineers produced outline proposals for three guns,<br />
<strong>of</strong> 70, 80 <strong>and</strong> 100cm calibre. The most realistic <strong>of</strong><br />
those was the 80cm gun, which would fire a projectile<br />
weighing up to 7.11 tonnes (7 tons) to a range <strong>of</strong><br />
around 32km (20 miles). It would weigh around 1370<br />
ARTILLERY<br />
tonnes (1350 tons) <strong>and</strong> require a crew approaching<br />
2000 strong. It would be mobile, but only in the loosest<br />
possible sense, for it would take around three<br />
weeks to dismantle it <strong>and</strong> the same to put it together<br />
again, <strong>and</strong> would need twin railway tracks for the<br />
whole <strong>of</strong> its journey, with an additional pair <strong>of</strong> tracks<br />
for the cranes required for assembly <strong>and</strong> disassembly.<br />
'GUSTAV AND'DORA'<br />
Nothing more on the subject was heard from the<br />
HWA, <strong>and</strong> Krupp's technicians went back to the more<br />
realistic task <strong>of</strong> developing the K5 <strong>and</strong> K12. There the<br />
matter may have rested, but in 1936, Hitler visited the<br />
establishment <strong>and</strong> began asking about the possibility<br />
<strong>of</strong> developing guns to defeat the Maginot Line. Gustav<br />
Krupp told him <strong>of</strong> the 80cm gun project, <strong>and</strong> as<br />
soon as the visit was concluded, well knowing<br />
Hitler's weakness for the gargantuan, Krupp had his<br />
staff draw up detailed plans. These were submitted to<br />
the HWA early in 1937, <strong>and</strong> the response was an order<br />
to construct three guns, work to start immediately <strong>and</strong><br />
to be completed by 1940.<br />
In the event, the barrels proved very difficult to<br />
manufacture, <strong>and</strong> Krupp missed the deadline by a<br />
considerable margin. By the time they were ready to<br />
proceed, the German Army had simply bypassed the<br />
111
ARTILLERY<br />
Above: The barrels <strong>of</strong> very large-calibre guns were<br />
transported dismounted. This barrel was captured by<br />
Allied forces at the war's end.<br />
Maginot Line. With no suitable target immediately to<br />
h<strong>and</strong>, work slowed down, <strong>and</strong> it was the end <strong>of</strong> the<br />
year before the first barrel was completed, <strong>and</strong> 1941<br />
before it was pro<strong>of</strong>ed. Only then was it worth setting<br />
to work on building the very complicated carriage,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that took the rest <strong>of</strong> the year. It was 1942 before<br />
the first complete gun was transported to the firing<br />
ranges at Rügenwald on the Baltic coast, assembled<br />
<strong>and</strong> tested, in the presence <strong>of</strong> Hitler himself. All went<br />
well <strong>and</strong> 'Gustav', as the gun had been christened, in<br />
honour <strong>of</strong> the company's Chairman, was presented to<br />
the nation with the company's compliments, to be followed<br />
almost immediately by 'Dora', named after the<br />
wife <strong>of</strong> the chief designer, Erich Muller.<br />
THE BOMBARDMENT OF SEBASTOPOL<br />
By 1942, the course <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> had taken a drastic<br />
turn following Hitler's declaration <strong>of</strong> war on the<br />
Soviet Union. There may have been no worthwhile<br />
1 12<br />
targets for 'Gustav' in Western Europe, but there were<br />
now plenty to the east. The gun was broken down into<br />
its components, they were loaded aboard <strong>their</strong> specially<br />
constructed railway flatcars, with the carriage<br />
base trundling along independently, occupying twin<br />
tracks, <strong>and</strong> the whole ensemble got underway for the<br />
Crimea. 'Gustav' was set up some 16km (10 miles) to<br />
the northeast <strong>of</strong> Sebastopol, which was still holding<br />
out, where it fired 48 rounds in all (including one<br />
which, most spectacularly, blew up an underground<br />
magazine) <strong>and</strong> played a significant part in the fall <strong>of</strong><br />
the city, whereupon it was shipped back to Essen in<br />
order for the barrel to be relined. 'Dora' took its place,<br />
but it is doubtful whether it actually saw action, since<br />
the Red Army soon counter-attacked <strong>and</strong> surrounded<br />
the Germans, <strong>and</strong> by that time it had been safely evacuated.<br />
There are no substantiated reports <strong>of</strong> either gun<br />
having been used in anger again, though there are<br />
reports <strong>of</strong> 'Gustav' having seen action at Leningrad<br />
<strong>and</strong> 'Dora' having been sent to <strong>War</strong>saw to take part in<br />
the bombardment after the uprising in 1944. At the<br />
war's end, parts <strong>of</strong> 'Dora' were found near Leipzig,<br />
parts <strong>of</strong> 'Gustav' in Bavaria, <strong>and</strong> components <strong>of</strong> the
third gun, which was never completed, in Essen. The<br />
project proved to be a very expensive exercise in futility:<br />
seven million Reichsmarks per gun, without the<br />
cost <strong>of</strong> the special trains needed to transport them <strong>and</strong><br />
the manpower required both to manufacture <strong>and</strong> to<br />
operate them. There were various schemes put forward<br />
for improved versions on the original carriages.<br />
These included one in 52cm calibre to fire a 1.42tonne<br />
(1.4-ton) shell to a range <strong>of</strong> about 113km (70<br />
miles); one to fire a 38cm sabotted sub-calibre shell to<br />
over 145km (90 miles) <strong>and</strong> even to fire rocket-assisted<br />
projectiles to something like 193km (120 miles);<br />
<strong>and</strong> a smooth-bore version to fire a version <strong>of</strong> the finstabilised,<br />
dart-like projectile called the Teenemunde<br />
arrow shell' (Peenemünde Pfeilgeschoss\ developed<br />
for the K5 gun (see below). None came to anything.<br />
THE GERAT 041<br />
The 'Gustav Gerät' guns were not the only fortresssmashers<br />
constructed for the German Army. Rather<br />
more satisfactory, <strong>and</strong> more practical, were the selfpropelled<br />
60cm howitzers developed by Rheinmetall<br />
ARTILLERY<br />
as the Gerät 041, known un<strong>of</strong>ficially as 'Karl', after<br />
General Karl Becker, whose brainchild they were.<br />
These were short-barrelled weapons, more like mortars<br />
than howitzers, with a maximum range <strong>of</strong> 4.5km<br />
(2.8 miles); they fired a 2.23-tonne (2.2-ton) shell<br />
specially designed to destroy reinforced-concrete<br />
structures such as blockhouses by burrowing into<br />
them for 2.5m (8.2ft) before exploding <strong>their</strong> 240kg<br />
(5291b) charge.<br />
The complete ensemble weighed 124 tonnes (122<br />
tons), <strong>and</strong> if the howitzers themselves were massive,<br />
the carriages upon which they rode were hardly less<br />
so at 11.3m (37ft) long, with full-length tracks with<br />
eight, <strong>and</strong> later 11, small roadwheels, each one independently<br />
sprung on a torsion bar. The vehicle could<br />
be jacked down to allow its hull to rest on the ground,<br />
thus avoiding the effects <strong>of</strong> recoil on the suspension.<br />
The recoil system itself was duplex: the gun recoiled<br />
Below: Rheinmetall constructed six 60cm self-propelled<br />
mortars for the Wehrmacht. These 'fortress smashers' -<br />
this is 'Thor' - were used all along the Eastern Front.
ARTILLERY<br />
within a cradle, which in turn recoiled along the chassis,<br />
controlled by hydro-pneumatic compensators.<br />
The vehicles were powered by 44.5-litre motors,<br />
although they were only expected to travel for short<br />
distances under <strong>their</strong> own power. For longer journeys<br />
they were loaded aboard specially built transporters<br />
or on railway cars. Six were manufactured, together<br />
with tracked, armoured ammunition carrier/loaders,<br />
<strong>and</strong> were issued to 628 Heavy Artillery Battalion<br />
(Motorised), which promptly named them 'Adam',<br />
'Eve', 'Odin', 'Thor', 'Loki' <strong>and</strong> 'Ziu'. They first<br />
went into action at the Siege <strong>of</strong> Brest-Litovsk in June<br />
1941, <strong>and</strong> were also present at Lvov <strong>and</strong> Sebastopol<br />
as well as elsewhere. In 1942, the Army asked for proposals<br />
to increase <strong>their</strong> range, <strong>and</strong> Rheinmetall's<br />
answer was to produce new barrels in 54cm calibre<br />
which fired 1250kg (27551b) shells to a maximum<br />
range <strong>of</strong> about 10km (6.2 miles). From then on, the<br />
barrels seem to have been swapped to suit whatever<br />
ordnance there was available. Two were seized by<br />
American forces in Bavaria in 1945.<br />
114<br />
Above: The 60cm mortars fired a shell weighing 2.23<br />
tonnes (2.2 tons), which was specially designed to drive<br />
deep into a fortification before exploding.<br />
THE K5 GUNS<br />
Also considerably more practical than 'Gustav' <strong>and</strong><br />
'Dora' were the K5 guns in 28cm calibre, which fired<br />
255kg (5651b) shells out to a range <strong>of</strong> close to 64km<br />
(40 miles). A total <strong>of</strong> 28 <strong>of</strong> these were constructed<br />
between 1936 <strong>and</strong> 1945, <strong>and</strong> all were used most effectively<br />
in combat, the most famous probably being<br />
'Anzio Annie', which was used to bombard the Anzio<br />
beachhead, <strong>and</strong> is now on display at the US Army's<br />
artillery proving grounds at Aberdeen, Maryl<strong>and</strong>.<br />
Like the Paris Guns, the K5 employed deeply incised<br />
rifling - the 12 grooves were 7mm (0.25in) deep -<br />
<strong>and</strong> each shell had very precisely machined curved<br />
slots into which were inserted s<strong>of</strong>t iron rails to form<br />
splines, matching the pattern in the barrel exactly,<br />
instead <strong>of</strong> the simple lugs or studs <strong>of</strong> the original.<br />
These guns too were mounted on railway cars, though
unlike the 'Gustav Gerät', they were transportable<br />
largely intact, <strong>and</strong> could thus be put into <strong>and</strong> out <strong>of</strong><br />
action much more quickly <strong>and</strong> easily. They were fully<br />
practical weapons, <strong>and</strong> the smaller 24cm K3, built by<br />
Rheinmetall, was perhaps better still, especially in its<br />
improved form, the Krupp-developed K4.<br />
However, that did not prevent the development <strong>of</strong><br />
projects to improve on these weapons. One <strong>of</strong> those<br />
was to produce a rocket-assisted projectile (RAP),<br />
which grew out <strong>of</strong> an attempt to develop a 15cm RAP<br />
for an existing gun. This proved to be much more<br />
practicable in the extra volume available. The shell<br />
was in two parts, the head containing the solid propellant,<br />
with a blast tube leading down to the base,<br />
surrounded by a conventional high-explosive filling.<br />
The propellant was ignited by a time fuze which detonated<br />
19 seconds into the projectile's flight when it<br />
was approaching the apogee <strong>of</strong> its trajectory <strong>and</strong><br />
boosted its velocity. The maximum range achieved on<br />
test was 86.5km (53.7 miles), <strong>and</strong> it was calculated<br />
that half the shells would l<strong>and</strong> in an elongated target<br />
area around 3500m (11,482ft) long <strong>and</strong> 200m (656ft)<br />
wide, which was entirely acceptable given the nature<br />
<strong>of</strong> the likely targets.<br />
ARTILLERY<br />
The RAP, an accepted part <strong>of</strong> the artilleryman's<br />
arsenal only by the 1980s, was not the only new projectile<br />
developed for the K5 gun. Scientists at Pennemünde<br />
also became involved in the attempts to<br />
increase the K5's range, <strong>and</strong> came up with the<br />
Pfeilgeschoss, in this case a projectile 120mm (4.7in)<br />
in diameter, 1.8m (6ft) long, with four fins <strong>and</strong> a form<br />
<strong>of</strong> rudimentary sabot, which was little more than a<br />
three-part flange, 31cm (7.9in) in diameter, which<br />
was to be fired from a version <strong>of</strong> the gun with a<br />
smooth-bore barrel bored out to that same calibre.<br />
The sabot flange was discarded as soon as the projectile<br />
was in free flight. With a suitable propellant<br />
charge to take its trajectory well into the stratosphere,<br />
this projectile, which had a 25kg (551b) explosive<br />
payload, reached a maximum range <strong>of</strong> almost 155km<br />
(95 miles). Development began as early as 1940, but<br />
with a low-grade priority it did not culminate until<br />
1944. Pfeilgeschossen were issued, <strong>and</strong> seem to have<br />
been used in combat, albeit in small numbers, in<br />
Below: Rheinmetall also built railway guns in 24cm<br />
calibre; this one is seen in northern France, firing at<br />
targets in Kent, across the English Channel.
ARTILLERY<br />
1945. The projectile was the forerunner <strong>of</strong> the FSDS<br />
(fin-stabilised, discarding sabot) round, now in common<br />
use. The credit for the original idea is usually<br />
accorded to a French gun designer, Edgar Br<strong>and</strong>t, better<br />
known for the infantry mortars he developed; in<br />
the 1930s he produced a very effective 105mm/75mm<br />
projectile, which had very superior performance<br />
when fired from a 105mm gun with a st<strong>and</strong>ard charge.<br />
THE'CROSS-CHANNEL GUN<br />
Meanwhile, Krupp's engineers were also working on<br />
a 'brute force' solution to firing a projectile out to<br />
8()km (50 miles) or more by a simple process <strong>of</strong> refining<br />
the original design <strong>of</strong> the Paris Gun. The result<br />
was the K12, in 21cm calibre, which used the same<br />
rifling <strong>and</strong> shell-seating method as the K5, with the<br />
addition <strong>of</strong> a composite copper/asbestos/graphite<br />
b<strong>and</strong> to improve its sealing within the tube <strong>and</strong> maximise<br />
the effect <strong>of</strong> the propeliant charge. It was hoped<br />
that the use <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>t iron splines rather than simple lugs<br />
would both cause them, <strong>and</strong> not the hardened molybnedum-steel<br />
<strong>of</strong> the barrel, to wear, <strong>and</strong> also spread the<br />
load <strong>of</strong> rotational acceleration, thus prolonging barrel<br />
life even in the presence <strong>of</strong> an abnormally large pro-<br />
116<br />
peliant charge. The first barrel was pro<strong>of</strong>ed in 1937<br />
<strong>and</strong> the first complete gun, the K12(V), was tested in<br />
1938 <strong>and</strong> declared serviceable in 1939. It fired a<br />
107.5kg (2371b) shell out to a maximum range <strong>of</strong><br />
115km (71.5 miles) <strong>and</strong> the Army declared itself satisfied,<br />
for it was a greater distance than the Navy had<br />
achieved with the Paris Gun. Beating that record<br />
seems to have been a major incentive. However, it<br />
was less than perfect in operation. It had to be jacked<br />
up by Im (3.3ft) into its firing position, so as to allow<br />
extra space for recoil, <strong>and</strong> then returned to the lower<br />
position for loading. Krupp was asked to devise an<br />
alternative mounting sub-frame <strong>and</strong> so produced a<br />
modified gun with strengthened hydraulic buffers as<br />
the K12 (N) in the summer <strong>of</strong> 1940. No more were<br />
ever constructed.<br />
Mounting the gun presented problems <strong>of</strong> its own.<br />
To begin with, its barrel was 157 calibres long, well<br />
over three times the length <strong>of</strong> comparable naval guns,<br />
more than 33m (108ft) from breech to muzzle. This<br />
Below: Two K5s were in action against Allied forces<br />
contained on the beachhead at Anzio for four months in<br />
1944. One was captured <strong>and</strong> shipped back to the USA.
21CM KANONE 12 (K12)<br />
Calibre: 21.1cm (8.3in)<br />
Barrel length: 33.34m (109.38ft)<br />
Weight (overall): 309,000kg (681,215lb)<br />
Weight <strong>of</strong> shell: 107.5kg (237lb)<br />
Range: 115km (71.5 miles)<br />
meant that it distorted under its own weight <strong>and</strong> had<br />
to be very carefully braced. It also needed its trunnions<br />
to be very accurately located at the centre <strong>of</strong><br />
balance, otherwise elevation would have been very<br />
difficult. The mount was in the form <strong>of</strong> an over-size<br />
railway car (more accurately, two railways cars); the<br />
main structure, with the trunnipn supports <strong>and</strong> elevating<br />
machinery, was mounted on two sub-frames each<br />
<strong>of</strong> which, in turn, was mounted on a pair <strong>of</strong> bogies,<br />
two eight-wheeled units to the fore <strong>and</strong> two tenwheeled<br />
units behind. For operational purposes it ran<br />
on a track section laid in an arc, <strong>and</strong> it was trained by<br />
running it backwards <strong>and</strong> forwards. The whole<br />
ensemble weighed 304.8 tonnes (300 tons) <strong>and</strong> was<br />
over 41m (135ft) long. It appears that the two guns<br />
were operational, with Eisenbahn Batterie 701, only<br />
for brief periods in late 1940 until early 1941, <strong>and</strong><br />
they were directed at targets in Kent, particularly<br />
around Dover, from emplacements in the Pas de<br />
Calais. The greatest range attained seems to have<br />
been <strong>of</strong> the order <strong>of</strong> 90km (56 miles). One example<br />
was captured by Allied forces in Holl<strong>and</strong> in 1945.<br />
THE HIGH-PRESSURE PUMP<br />
The K12 guns were not the only weapon developed<br />
with an eye to bombarding southern Engl<strong>and</strong> with<br />
artillery fire, but the other project, the so-called<br />
'High-pressure Pump', was much less conventional,<br />
<strong>and</strong> relied on a principle first demonstrated, albeit<br />
imperfectly, in the United States <strong>of</strong> America around<br />
1885. It was the work <strong>of</strong> Lyman <strong>and</strong> Haskell, who reasoned<br />
that subsidiary propellant charges, spaced at<br />
intervals up the barrel <strong>of</strong> a gun in side-chambers <strong>and</strong><br />
ARTILLERY<br />
Above: The 21cm K12 railway gun had the longest range<br />
<strong>of</strong> alf the 'superguns'- around 115km (71.5 miles),<br />
depending on weather conditions.<br />
ignited a micro-instant after a shell had travelled past<br />
on its way up the barrel, would provide a subsidiary<br />
propellant force <strong>and</strong> thus increase the muzzle velocity<br />
<strong>of</strong> the projectile. The result, when they built it on<br />
the instructions <strong>of</strong> the US Army's Chief <strong>of</strong> Ordnance,<br />
didn't much resemble an artillery piece as we know it.<br />
Firstly, the barrel had to be so long that it could not be<br />
supported save on the ground <strong>and</strong> had to be laid on an<br />
inclined ramp; <strong>and</strong> secondly, it had pairs <strong>of</strong> chambers,<br />
angled back at 45 degrees, let into it for much <strong>of</strong> its<br />
length. In the event, it didn't work: obturation was<br />
faulty, the flash from the original propellant charge<br />
bypassed the shell <strong>and</strong> ignited the subsidiary charges<br />
ahead <strong>of</strong> it, defeating the whole object <strong>of</strong> the exercise.<br />
Lyman <strong>and</strong> Haskell gave up, <strong>and</strong> the idea was consigned<br />
to the history books. It was apparently raised<br />
again in Britian, during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I, but was turned<br />
down once more.<br />
In 1943, a German engineer named Cönders, who<br />
worked for Röchling Eisen- und Stahlwerke (which<br />
was not just a producer <strong>of</strong> iron <strong>and</strong> steel, but had also<br />
been active in the field <strong>of</strong> munitions) proposed an<br />
identical weapon. Thanks to the success <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong><br />
Cönders' other projects, the so-called 'Röchling<br />
Shell' (a bunker-buster par excellence), those who had<br />
the all-important ear <strong>of</strong> the Führer, particularly Albert<br />
Speer, the Minister <strong>of</strong> Munitions, took note. Even<br />
though he would only proceed on the underst<strong>and</strong>ing<br />
that no one, not even the HWA, 'interfered' with his<br />
1 1 7
ARTILLERY<br />
work, Cönders was told to produce a prototype <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Hochdruckpumpe ('High-pressure Pump'). He made<br />
one in 20mm calibre <strong>and</strong> obtained satisfactory results,<br />
<strong>and</strong> at that point, Hitler, who had been following<br />
progress with interest, decided to take a h<strong>and</strong>. Cönders<br />
would, he decided, build not just one or two<br />
guns, but a battery <strong>of</strong> 50, which would be located in a<br />
suitable position behind Calais, aligned towards London<br />
some 160km (100 miles) away. A suitable site for<br />
what was already being referred to as V3 was found at<br />
Marquise-Mimoyecques behind Cap Gris Nez, very<br />
close to the southern end <strong>of</strong> the modern-day Channel<br />
Tunnel. This cannot have been altogether easy, when<br />
we consider that the VI <strong>and</strong> V2 launch sites were<br />
already under construction in that same area. There<br />
must have been, to say the least, a lively discussion as<br />
to which weapon got which piece <strong>of</strong> real estate.<br />
Despite this, work began on two excavations, each <strong>of</strong><br />
which was to hold an array <strong>of</strong> 25 guns in 15cm calibre,<br />
which would fire long, dart-like projectiles fitted<br />
with stabilising fins, which Cönders was even then<br />
perfecting. Or, more accurately, which Cönders was<br />
not perfecting.<br />
THE HWA TAKES CONTROL<br />
Cönders had built a full-calibre gun at the Hillersleben<br />
proving ground, near Magdeburg, <strong>and</strong> by late<br />
1943 had run into severe problems, both in putting the<br />
principle into practice <strong>and</strong> in producing a workable<br />
design for the shell. And even when everything went<br />
according to plan - which was seldom - the results<br />
were not promising, for muzzle velocity, at just over<br />
1000m (3280ft) per second, was nowhere near high<br />
enough. Nonetheless, plans to build a single full-size<br />
gun with a barrel 150m (492ft) long at Misdroy near<br />
Peenemiinde went ahead, while preparation <strong>of</strong> the site<br />
in the Pas de Calais (now reduced to just one following<br />
a series <strong>of</strong> successful bombing raids by the RAF<br />
<strong>and</strong> the USAAF, which had by this time started to pay<br />
very close attention to any large engineering work in<br />
the area) had reached an advanced stage, <strong>and</strong> a special<br />
artillery battalion was being formed. Still working in<br />
isolation, there was little Cönders could do but press<br />
on <strong>and</strong> hope for the best. By mid-March, with no<br />
good news coming out <strong>of</strong> Misdroy, the HWA had had<br />
quite enough <strong>of</strong> this unconventional working arrangement.<br />
Senior staff travelled to Misdroy for a demonstration<br />
<strong>and</strong> were less than pleased with what they<br />
saw. Generals von Leeb <strong>and</strong> Schneider <strong>of</strong> the HWA<br />
took control. Matters took a distinct turn for the better<br />
as a result. Cönders became but one <strong>of</strong> the engi-<br />
118<br />
neers working on the three main problems: projectile<br />
design, obturation, <strong>and</strong> ignition <strong>of</strong> the subsidiary<br />
charges. In all, six different specialist firms including<br />
Skoda <strong>and</strong> Krupp produced satisfactory designs for<br />
shells. Obturation problems were solved by placing a<br />
sealing piston between the projectile <strong>and</strong> the initial<br />
charge, <strong>and</strong> that in itself solved the problems <strong>of</strong> precisely<br />
controlling the serial detonation <strong>of</strong> the subsidiary<br />
charges, for now the flash from the original<br />
charge couldn't get ahead <strong>of</strong> the projectile <strong>and</strong> there<br />
was no need to attempt to develop an electrical firing<br />
sequence.<br />
By late May, the Misdroy gun was producing more<br />
satisfactory results, <strong>and</strong> ranges <strong>of</strong> up to about 80km<br />
(50 miles) were being reached, when it burst on firing,<br />
destroying two sections. New parts were ordered, <strong>and</strong><br />
a further trial set for early July, but meanwhile the<br />
RAF was still at work. After the western site at Marquise<br />
had been ab<strong>and</strong>oned, the Todt Organisation,<br />
responsible for construction, took great pains to hide<br />
the accesses to the eastern site, <strong>and</strong> for some time it<br />
succeeded. However, by late June, the photographic<br />
interpreters had decided that there was enough evidence<br />
to suggest that something was going on in the<br />
area to justify sending Bomber Comm<strong>and</strong>'s elite 617<br />
Squadron to pay it a visit with I2,0001b (5443kg)<br />
'Tallboy' deep-penetration 'earthquake' bombs. The<br />
effect <strong>of</strong> the raid on 6 July was devastating: one bomb<br />
hit the target square-on, <strong>and</strong> four more scored very<br />
near misses which were actually reckoned to be even<br />
more effective. The site was put out <strong>of</strong> commission<br />
<strong>and</strong> no further work was undertaken before it was<br />
overrun by Allied troops.<br />
Meanwhile, on 4 July the trials gun had been fired<br />
again. This time it got <strong>of</strong>f eight rounds - one <strong>of</strong> which<br />
reached a range <strong>of</strong> 93km (58 miles) - before it burst,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that effectively put an end to the project to bombard<br />
London. There is evidence that further development<br />
took place. When Allied troops captured Hillersleben,<br />
they found two guns in damaged condition,<br />
one with 10 pairs <strong>of</strong> subsidiary chambers (set at rightangles<br />
to the axis <strong>of</strong> the bore), <strong>and</strong> the other with five<br />
pairs set at a 45-degree angle. Both were 75m (246ft)<br />
long. There are unsubstantiated reports that two shortbarrelled<br />
versions were built <strong>and</strong> used in combat<br />
against US forces during the Battle <strong>of</strong> the Bulge in<br />
December 1944, but experts discount them.<br />
Right: The so-called 'High Pressure Pump' - an innovative<br />
approach to the solution <strong>of</strong> applying greater propulsive<br />
force to a projectile. It was never effective.
ARTILLERY<br />
11 s
CHAPTER TEN<br />
Tanks <strong>and</strong> Anti-Tank<br />
<strong>Weapons</strong><br />
While the British pioneered the use <strong>of</strong> armoured fighting vehicles in 1916, by 1939 the<br />
baton had passed to Germany, where men such as Guderian showed that they could<br />
win a war <strong>of</strong> movement, as British theorists had always promised. Then Hitler took a<br />
personal h<strong>and</strong> in the German tank programme, <strong>and</strong> his insistence that size mattered<br />
above all things was to send the entire effort <strong>of</strong>f on a wild goose chase from which it<br />
never fully recovered, even though saner counsel did eventually prevail.<br />
Properly speaking, the tank ceased to be a secret<br />
weapon on the morning <strong>of</strong> 15 September 1916,<br />
when the British Tank Mark 1, or 'Mother', went into<br />
action on the Somme battlefield. Its appearance came<br />
as a complete surprise to the German infantry, secrecy<br />
having been maintained throughout. Even the<br />
Above: The Panzerjäger Tiger was based on the vehicle<br />
Ferdin<strong>and</strong> Porsche put forward for the Tiger project.<br />
Left: The 'Panzerschreck' fired a rocket-propelled grenade<br />
with a hollow-charge warhead.<br />
name 'tank' was deliberately misleading, though it<br />
stuck. More <strong>of</strong> a secret than the existence <strong>of</strong> tanks in<br />
the German Army was the way in which they would<br />
be employed. In any event, <strong>their</strong> use came as a complete<br />
surprise to the Poles in 1939 <strong>and</strong> to the French<br />
the following year. However, that was not to say that<br />
new models would be developed in full view.<br />
THE TIGER TANK<br />
When the 58-tonne (57-ton) Sonderkraftfahrzeug<br />
(SdKfz) 181 Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger first went<br />
into action on the Leningrad front, 26 years ancf 1 day<br />
121
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
PzKpfw VI TIGER Ausf E<br />
Length (overall): 8.24m (27.00ft)<br />
Width: 3.73m (12.25ft)<br />
Weight: 58,000kg (127,867lb)<br />
Max road speed: 38km/h (24mph)<br />
Max road range: 100km (60 miles)<br />
Crew: 5<br />
Armament: 8.8cm KwK 36 gun;<br />
2 x 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns<br />
after the armoured fighting vehicle made its original<br />
debut, it was something the like <strong>of</strong> which had never<br />
been seen. With frontal armour 100mm (3.93in) thick,<br />
it was unstoppable at anything but suicidally short<br />
range, <strong>and</strong> its 8.8cm/L56 gun could, quite literally,<br />
shoot straight through any vehicle it might happen to<br />
meet, the Soviet T-34 which it was specially built to<br />
combat being no exception.<br />
In fact, the Tiger's first outing was indecisive, <strong>and</strong><br />
its second, a week later, much less than successful<br />
when one <strong>of</strong> them bogged down in no-man's-l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
had to be blown up to prevent it from falling into<br />
enemy h<strong>and</strong>s. It was January <strong>of</strong> the following year<br />
before Tigers went into battle again, <strong>and</strong> it soon<br />
became clear that they were not the omnipotent force<br />
they had been thought to be, even though at best, <strong>and</strong><br />
in the best h<strong>and</strong>s, they were very effective indeed. In<br />
the long run, the Tiger would prove to be deeply<br />
flawed: its fuel consumption was shocking, <strong>and</strong> its<br />
powerplant <strong>and</strong> transmission insufficiently robust. By<br />
1944, the Allies had weapons capable <strong>of</strong> dealing with<br />
it, but it seems to have had a place second to none in<br />
Adolf Hitler's affections. Certainly it fulfilled all his<br />
'biggest ... strongest... best' requirements, at least in<br />
the short term. It was eventually to be superseded by<br />
the 71.1-tonne (70-ton) SdKfz 182 Tiger <strong>II</strong>, which<br />
was more <strong>of</strong> everything, <strong>and</strong> which, despite being<br />
even less effective in all but very narrowly defined circumstances,<br />
still did not prove to the Führer that the<br />
law <strong>of</strong> diminishing returns was at work.<br />
THE GIANT MOUSE<br />
Hitler is usually held responsible for the decision to<br />
build the monster tanks, <strong>and</strong> he certainly gave them<br />
his very active personal approval, but he had a willing<br />
122<br />
Above: The Tiger was the first <strong>of</strong> the German 'supertanks',<br />
<strong>and</strong> was effective if properly h<strong>and</strong>led. Its underpowered<br />
engine was the cause <strong>of</strong> many breakdowns, though.<br />
assistant in the person <strong>of</strong> one Dr Ing. Ferdin<strong>and</strong><br />
Porsche, who, conveniently, was both the country's<br />
leading tank designer (at least, in his own eyes) <strong>and</strong><br />
head <strong>of</strong> the Tank Commission. As early as 1942, even<br />
before the Tigers had gone into action, Porsche<br />
brought forward a plan for a tank he called, presumably<br />
with studied irony, the 'Maus' ('Mouse'). This<br />
was to be a 152.4-tonne (150-ton) vehicle, with<br />
frontal armour a massive 350mm (13.75in) thick, <strong>and</strong><br />
mounting either a 12.8cm or a 15cm gun with a 7.5cm<br />
gun mounted co-axially (as well as a 2cm cannon <strong>and</strong><br />
two 7.92mm machine guns). Like Porsche's proposed<br />
design for the Tiger (which became the Panzerjäger<br />
Tiger), the 'Maus' was to have petrol/electric drive, its<br />
1200bhp engine driving a generator, which in turn<br />
drove electric motors in the hubs <strong>of</strong> the driving<br />
wheels. This was an elegant enough solution to the<br />
many problems <strong>of</strong> power transmission, but one which<br />
would ultimately prove to be flawed, at least on this<br />
smaller scale. <strong>Submarines</strong> <strong>and</strong> even battleships used it<br />
successfully, but in tanks, the motors were not powerful<br />
enough <strong>and</strong> drivers <strong>of</strong>ten burned them out trying to<br />
extricate <strong>their</strong> vehicles from difficult situations.<br />
Orders were placed for six prototypes, the first <strong>of</strong><br />
which was mobile under its own power in December<br />
1943. It proved surprisingly successful, attaining a<br />
speed <strong>of</strong> 20km/h (12.5mph) with an under-spec<br />
lOOObhp engine; particularly successful was its suspension<br />
system, which was a modified version <strong>of</strong><br />
Porsche's Tiger's, with longitudinal torsion bars <strong>and</strong><br />
four interleaved roadwheels per stub-axle. At a total
PzKpfw VI TIGER H Ausf B<br />
Length (overall): 10.26m (33.66ft)<br />
Width: 3.75m (12.29ft)<br />
Weight: 71,100kg (156,747lb)<br />
Max road speed: 38km/h (24mph)<br />
Max road range: 110km<br />
(68 miles)<br />
Crew: 5<br />
Armament: 8.8cm KwK 43 gun;<br />
2 x 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns<br />
weight <strong>of</strong> almost 193 tonnes (190 tons) including its<br />
six-man crew, fuel <strong>and</strong> ordnance, there was hardly a<br />
road bridge in the country which would have taken its<br />
weight, <strong>and</strong> thus it was designed from the outset to be<br />
able to submerge to a depth <strong>of</strong> 8m (26.25ft), air for<br />
occupants <strong>and</strong> powerplant being supplied via a<br />
schnorkel tube which extended from the turret ro<strong>of</strong>.<br />
The 'Maus' project didn't get much further than the<br />
initial stage; in all, nine prototypes had been wholly<br />
or partially completed by the war's end, though that<br />
Below: A pair <strong>of</strong> knocked-out Tigers in the Soviet Union in<br />
1944. By that time the Allies had got the measure <strong>of</strong> these<br />
58-tonne (57-ton) monsters.<br />
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
Above: The King Tiger was heavier than the Tiger <strong>and</strong> had<br />
a more powerful 8.8cm gun. It was, however, also prone<br />
to breakdowns, having the same powerplant as the Tiger.<br />
small result does not reflect the amount <strong>of</strong> energy,<br />
money <strong>and</strong> scarce resources which had been lavished<br />
on it. And worse was to come, because the HWA -<br />
having protested that it did not want such a vehicle<br />
<strong>and</strong> could formulate no sensible tactical plan for its<br />
use, <strong>and</strong> having been overruled by the Führer - then<br />
decided to commission something very similar itself!<br />
It comes as no surpise to find that it was to Henschel,<br />
the producer <strong>of</strong> both versions <strong>of</strong> the Tiger (<strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>of</strong> the much more successful PzKpfw V Panther), that<br />
1 93
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
PANZER 'MAUS'<br />
Length (overall): 10.08m (33.08ft)<br />
Width: 3.67m (12.00ft)<br />
Weight: 193,000kg (425,488lb)<br />
Max road speed: 20km/h (12.5mph)<br />
Max road range: 190km (119 miles)<br />
the HWA turned, <strong>and</strong> even less <strong>of</strong> one to learn that the<br />
E100, as the project was known, displayed more than<br />
a passing resemblance to them, though it was certainly<br />
on a gr<strong>and</strong>er scale. Its all-up weight was estimated<br />
at 142.2 tonnes (140 tons) which would probably<br />
have meant it going into battle at least 10.16 tonnes<br />
(10 tons) heavier, <strong>and</strong> it, too, was to have had the<br />
KwK 44 15cm gun <strong>and</strong> a co-axially mounted 7.5cm.<br />
In all, it appears to have been a more realistic (though<br />
the phrase is used loosely) proposition than the Maus.<br />
One prototype was under construction at the war's<br />
end, but had never run.<br />
In all, the German tank development programme<br />
during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> was deeply flawed by the<br />
assumption that a single vehicle, heavily armoured<br />
<strong>and</strong> with a powerful gun, would be able to out-fight<br />
(or at least out-range) any number <strong>of</strong> enemy tanks. By<br />
the time the Allies l<strong>and</strong>ed in Norm<strong>and</strong>y in 1944, this<br />
was certainly not true. American Sherman tanks,<br />
which appeared on the battlefield around the same<br />
time as the Tiger, had by then acquired very much<br />
more powerful guns - the 76mm in Americanmanned<br />
tanks, the 17pdr in British service - <strong>and</strong> had<br />
a fighting chance which <strong>their</strong> numerical superiority<br />
turned into a certainty. The same was true in the east<br />
with the up-gunned T-34. It would have been very<br />
much more sensible to have ab<strong>and</strong>oned the Tiger (or<br />
better still, never to have begun it) <strong>and</strong> to have concentrated<br />
instead on the PzKpfw V Panther, which<br />
many experts rate as the best tank <strong>of</strong> the entire war.<br />
Certainly, Panthers were quicker (<strong>and</strong> much cheaper)<br />
to produce, <strong>and</strong> were formidable opponents, with a<br />
124<br />
Crew: 6<br />
Armament: 15cm KwK 44 gun, 7.5cm KwK 44<br />
gun; 2 x 7.92mm MG 34 machine guns<br />
Above: Even the King Tiger would have been dwarfed<br />
beside the 'Maus'. Its secondary armament was to have<br />
been the 7.5cm gun, the Panther tank's main armament.<br />
KwK 42 7.5cm cannon, 70 calibres long, developed<br />
by Rheinmetall-Borsig, which was capable <strong>of</strong> perforating<br />
any Allied tank at virtually all ranges.<br />
ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
If the German tank development programme was<br />
fatally flawed, the same could not be said <strong>of</strong> the antitank<br />
(AT) weapons development programme. At the<br />
start <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>, anti-tank weapons were simply<br />
not up to the task, save in a few particulars. One was<br />
the heavy German 8.8cm gun, which had started life<br />
as an anti-aircraft weapon but which showed itself<br />
during the Spanish Civil <strong>War</strong> as a very successful AT<br />
weapon, once appropriate armour-piercing projectiles<br />
had been developed. It soon acquired a practical <strong>and</strong><br />
practicable mobile mounting, <strong>and</strong> was issued as the<br />
Panzerabwehrkanone (PaK) 36; it was also adopted as<br />
the KwK 36 for the Tiger tank. It was very capable,<br />
but entirely conventional; other German developments<br />
in high-velocity guns intended for use against<br />
armoured vehicles were not.<br />
THE TAPERED-BORE GUNS<br />
The earliest suggestion for a gun with a uniformly<br />
tapering barrel seems to have originated in Germany<br />
in about 1903 with a man named Karl Puff. He suggested<br />
using a projectile with a sleeve, which was<br />
compressed by the taper <strong>of</strong> the bore until it filled a
series <strong>of</strong> grooves in the body <strong>of</strong> the bullet. By that<br />
means, the velocity <strong>of</strong> the projectile was much<br />
increased, since its cross-sectional area had been<br />
diminished considerably while the pressure in the barrel<br />
remained constant (the velocity being a product <strong>of</strong><br />
the two). Unfortunately for Puff, the complexities <strong>of</strong><br />
manufacturing a rifled tapered bore were beyond the<br />
capability <strong>of</strong> German gunmakers, <strong>and</strong> nothing came<br />
<strong>of</strong> the idea, at least, not then.<br />
In the 1930s, another German, a gunmaker named<br />
Hermann Gerlich, experimented with Puff's scheme,<br />
<strong>and</strong> was able to manufacture hunting rifles according<br />
to the principle. They proved to be excellent, with the<br />
all-important flat trajectory, but when he tried to interest<br />
the armed services <strong>of</strong> a number <strong>of</strong> countries in<br />
such a rifle, he was less successful, entirely, it seems,<br />
thanks to the projected cost <strong>of</strong> the weapon. However,<br />
the Springfield Arsenal, for one, certainly validated<br />
the concept, producing a version <strong>of</strong> the M1917 rifle<br />
with a muzzle velocity <strong>of</strong> over 2135m/s (7000ft/s)<br />
instead <strong>of</strong> the st<strong>and</strong>ard 855m/s (28QOft/s). Gerlich<br />
gave up trying to market the concept himself in 1933,<br />
<strong>and</strong> contacted Rheinmetall, who saw the possibility <strong>of</strong><br />
incorporating the system into an anti-tank rifle, using<br />
a projectile with a tungsten carbide core <strong>and</strong> s<strong>of</strong>t steel<br />
skirt. Eventually, it produced what became known as<br />
the Panzerbüchse (anti-tank rifle) 41, which fired a<br />
20mm (it had started out at 28mm nominal diameter)<br />
round at a muzzle velocity <strong>of</strong> around 1400m/s<br />
(4600ft/s), <strong>and</strong> which could perforate (ie, pass completely<br />
through) 66mm (2.6in) <strong>of</strong> nickel-steel armour<br />
at a range <strong>of</strong> 500m (1640ft). Soon, Rheinmetall produced<br />
a more powerful version in 4.2cm nominal calibre,<br />
which squeezed its projectiles down to 29.4mm,<br />
<strong>and</strong> which could perforate that same thickness <strong>of</strong><br />
armour plate at twice the distance. It entered service<br />
in 1941 as the 4.2cm Panzerabwehrkanone (anti-tank<br />
gun) 41, <strong>and</strong> proved to be very successful.<br />
THE SQUEEZE-BORE GUN<br />
Two years earlier, Krupp had also begun to examine<br />
the possibilities <strong>of</strong> reducing the cross-sectional area<br />
<strong>of</strong> a projectile while it was in the barrel, <strong>and</strong> settled on<br />
a slightly simpler, but no less effective, method <strong>of</strong> carrying<br />
out the procedure. Instead <strong>of</strong> manufacturing a<br />
barrel with a uniformly tapered bore, Krupp added a<br />
smooth-bore, step-tapered section to the muzzle <strong>of</strong> a<br />
conventional gun. The (flanged) round entered the<br />
supplementary section at nominal diameter <strong>of</strong> 7.5cm<br />
<strong>and</strong> passed through two tapered sections which<br />
reduced it to 5.5cm. The advantage <strong>of</strong> this was chiefly<br />
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
Above: The 8.8cm Raketenwerfer 43, usually called the<br />
'Püppchen', was not a gun but a rocket launcher. It was<br />
superseded by the shoulder-held tube rocket launchers,<br />
logistical; only the unrifled, tapered section became<br />
badly worn (that, <strong>of</strong> course, was the system's great<br />
drawback), <strong>and</strong> was attached to the main section <strong>of</strong><br />
the barrel by a simple screw collar, which meant it<br />
could be replaced in the field without the need for<br />
special tools. The 7.5cm PaK 41, as the gun was<br />
known, fired a tungsten-cored shot weighing 2.6kg<br />
(5.71b) at a muzzle velocity <strong>of</strong> 1125m/s (3700ft/s) <strong>and</strong><br />
could perforate 125mm (4.9in) <strong>of</strong> armour, more than<br />
any tank had, at a range <strong>of</strong> 2000m (6560ft). This gun<br />
was the weapon originally specified for the Tiger<br />
tank. The taper-bore <strong>and</strong> squeeze-bore guns were<br />
without question excellent battlefield weapons, but<br />
they needed tungsten for <strong>their</strong> bullet cores if they<br />
were to be effective, <strong>and</strong> that was a material in short<br />
supply in Germany at that time, being much in<br />
dem<strong>and</strong> in the engineering industry as cutter bits for<br />
machine tools. Eventually, a choice had to be made,<br />
<strong>and</strong> the manufacturing industry won. The taper-bore<br />
<strong>and</strong> squeeze-bore guns were taken out <strong>of</strong> service <strong>and</strong><br />
scrapped <strong>and</strong> few survived the war. Rheinmetall <strong>and</strong><br />
Krupp <strong>of</strong>fered conventional anti-tank guns in larger<br />
calibres instead, culminating in the 12.8cm PaK 44.<br />
SHAPED AND HOLLOW CHARGES<br />
The kinetic energy <strong>of</strong> a very hard object travelling at<br />
high speed (brute force, in other words) was one way<br />
to perforate armour, but there was another; the shaped
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
Above: The Panzerfaust 30 was the simplest <strong>of</strong> all German<br />
rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Its designation<br />
referred to its optimum range - 30m (32.8 yards).<br />
Below: Appearances are not deceptive. The<br />
'Panzerschreck' was developed from the US Bazooka,<br />
<strong>and</strong> was just as effective. Two versions were produced.<br />
126<br />
or hollow explosive charge, which incorporated a hollow<br />
cone or hemisphere <strong>of</strong> metal translated by the<br />
heat <strong>of</strong> the explosion behind it into a high-speed<br />
(around 7500m/s; 24,600ft/s) jet <strong>of</strong> molten material<br />
<strong>and</strong> gas. This was first produced, in Germany in 1939,<br />
as a demolition charge, <strong>and</strong> is reputed to have been<br />
first used in combat at the storming <strong>of</strong> the fortress <strong>of</strong><br />
Eben-Emael in May 1940. By that time, however, its<br />
developers had moved on, <strong>and</strong> were on the verge <strong>of</strong><br />
producing an artillery shell on the same principle.<br />
The British <strong>and</strong> Americans had also made considerable<br />
progress independently, while the Soviets had<br />
achieved the same ends by the rather simpler means<br />
<strong>of</strong> copying captured or stolen German munitions.<br />
However, in this principle, there was a problem: the<br />
act <strong>of</strong> spinning the shell to maintain its accuracy in<br />
flight dispersed the molten jet <strong>and</strong> made it much less<br />
effective. One answer was to stabilise the round with<br />
fins instead, but that took some working out. Another<br />
answer was to emulate the pyrotechnic 'sky rocket'<br />
<strong>and</strong> fit the projectile with a long shaft for a tail. In the<br />
successful German development <strong>of</strong> this simple principle,<br />
the rod was surrounded by a tube upon which fins<br />
were mounted. The rod went down the barrel <strong>of</strong> a<br />
3.7cm PaK 36 anti-tank gun, <strong>and</strong> the tube fitted<br />
around it, with the shaped-charge warhead, with its<br />
copper hemisphere <strong>and</strong> 2.4kg (5.31b) <strong>of</strong> TNT <strong>and</strong> hexogen<br />
sitting in front <strong>of</strong> the mu/zle. It was propelled by
PANZERFAUST 30<br />
Projectile diameter: 150mm<br />
(5.91in)<br />
Weight (overall): 5.22kg<br />
(11.5lb)<br />
Range: 30m (32.8 yards}<br />
Penetration: 200mm (7.87in)<br />
a special cartridge, loaded conventionally at the<br />
breech, <strong>and</strong> was reasonably accurate up to about<br />
300m (985ft). Being independent <strong>of</strong> the kinetic energy<br />
<strong>of</strong> the round in flight (which diminished with distance,<br />
<strong>of</strong> course) the warhead was equally effective at<br />
all ranges, <strong>and</strong> could pierce 180mm (7.08in) <strong>of</strong><br />
armour. The shaped-charge warhead was also to be<br />
mated with simple solid-fuel rocket 'motors' to produce<br />
early RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades), the<br />
Panzerfaust <strong>and</strong> the Raketenpanzerbüchse (also<br />
known as the 'Panzerschreck' - 'panzer terror'),<br />
which was a direct copy <strong>of</strong> the American Rocket<br />
Launcher M l, the celebrated Bazooka, using German<br />
8.8cm rockets.<br />
THE RUHRSTAHL X-7 'ROTTKÄPPCHEN'<br />
An altogether more elegant solution to the problem <strong>of</strong><br />
killing tanks on the battlefield at something greater<br />
than suicidally close quarters (the main problem with<br />
the Panzerfaust <strong>and</strong> 'Panzerschreck') was put forward<br />
by Ruhrstahl. We have already encountered this company<br />
as the producers <strong>of</strong> the 'Fritz-X' guided bomb<br />
<strong>and</strong> the X-4 air-to-air guided missile, in response to<br />
HWA's request in 1944. The X-7 'Rottkäppchen'<br />
('Red Riding Hood') was essentially similar in nature<br />
to the X-4 AAM, with its conventional HE warhead<br />
exchanged for a 2.5kg (5.51b) shaped charge, <strong>and</strong> with<br />
its control system cunningly simplified. Like the X-4,<br />
the X-7 was winged (two wings only, in this case,<br />
with parabolic leading <strong>and</strong> trailing edges, with spools<br />
from which the control wire paid out located at <strong>their</strong><br />
tips) <strong>and</strong> revolved slowly in flight, both pitch <strong>and</strong> yaw<br />
TANKS AND ANTI-TANK WEAPONS<br />
RPzB 43 'PANZERSCHRECK'<br />
Calibre: 88mm (3.46in}<br />
Length: 1.638m (5.375ft)<br />
Weight (overall): 13.12kg<br />
(28.86lb)<br />
Range: 150m (164 yards}<br />
Above: The Raketenpanzerbüchse 43 'Panzerschreck' <strong>and</strong><br />
the simpler Panzerfaust gave even individual infantrymen<br />
the means to kill tanks.<br />
being controlled by a single spade-like vane or fin<br />
mounted at the end <strong>of</strong> a curved arm which, when the<br />
missile was launched, hung down <strong>and</strong> behind the<br />
body. As the missile rotated (once again, at a rate <strong>of</strong><br />
about one complete turn per second), this was able to<br />
exercise control over both pitch <strong>and</strong> yaw, a gyroscopic<br />
switch transferring the signals to actuate the simple<br />
spoiler as it turned from the vertical to the horizontal<br />
plane <strong>and</strong> so on, an elegant solution indeed.<br />
The X-7 was powered by two WASAG solid-fuel<br />
rockets whose diglycol propellant was in the form <strong>of</strong><br />
two concentric tubes. The first charge gave a thrust <strong>of</strong><br />
68kg (1501b) for two <strong>and</strong> a half seconds to launch the<br />
missile into flight <strong>and</strong> get it up to its 360km/h (224<br />
mph) operating speed; the second gave 5.5kg (121b)<br />
<strong>of</strong> thrust for eight seconds (which was actually longer<br />
by a considerable margin than the flight was likely to<br />
last) to sustain it. Maximum range was to have been<br />
around 1200m (1310 yards). It is thought that a total<br />
<strong>of</strong> a few hundred Ruhrstahl X-7s were manufactured,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that most were consumed in testing, but there is<br />
some evidence to suggest that some made it into the<br />
field, <strong>and</strong> were expended in combat on the Eastern<br />
Front during 1945. There are unconfirmed reports that<br />
the X-7 performed satisfactorily, <strong>and</strong> was able to deal<br />
even with the JS-1 'Stalin' heavy tank, which was<br />
impervious to virtually everything else at anything<br />
over short range.
CHAPTER ELEVEN<br />
<strong>Submarines</strong> <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>their</strong> <strong>Weapons</strong><br />
By the time <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> was halfway through, Germany (<strong>and</strong> in particular the Führer<br />
himself) had largely given up on its surface navy, but the submarine arm was another<br />
matter entirely. U-boat veterans knew, however, that much still remained to be<br />
developed in the boats themselves, <strong>and</strong> a well-funded programme was put into<br />
effect. Yet again it proved to be just too late, however, for by the time the newgeneration<br />
boats were coming <strong>of</strong>f the ways, the war was already lost.<br />
If the Luftwaffe was the Nazi Party favourite in prewar<br />
<strong>and</strong> wartime Germany, the Kriegsmarine<br />
(Navy) was, for a variety <strong>of</strong> reasons, very definitely<br />
not. Some <strong>of</strong> the reasons were historical <strong>and</strong> political,<br />
<strong>and</strong> went back to the dark days <strong>of</strong> near civil war in the<br />
1920s, but others were more recently rooted, <strong>and</strong> had<br />
to do exclusively with the poor performance <strong>of</strong><br />
German capital ships. At one point, an enraged Hitler<br />
actually ordered all the surface fleet to be scrapped.<br />
The exception was the submarine service which,<br />
under the talented leadership <strong>of</strong> Karl Dönitz, had<br />
Above: The Type XXI U-boat was one <strong>of</strong> the most<br />
influential naval developments <strong>of</strong> the twentieth century.<br />
Left: Germany also developed midget submarines, like this<br />
'Biber' putting to sea from Rotterdam at Christmas 1944.<br />
actually come close to cutting Britain's vital lifeline<br />
to the United States <strong>and</strong> to its colonies. Most <strong>of</strong> the<br />
few funds for development that did find <strong>their</strong> way to<br />
the Kriegsmarine were destined for the U-boat arm.<br />
HOMING TORPEDOES AND MAGNETIC MINES<br />
By the end <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I, the submarine torpedo, the<br />
first really successful model <strong>of</strong> which had been produced<br />
by the Anglo-Italian Whitehead in 1868, had<br />
been developed to the point where it was a reliable,<br />
practical weapon. During that war it had been used to<br />
sink thous<strong>and</strong>s <strong>of</strong> ships (German submarines alone<br />
accounted for 5556), <strong>and</strong> we can hazard a guess that<br />
the individual success rate (expressed as hits per torpedo)<br />
probably made it one <strong>of</strong> the most effective<br />
<strong>of</strong>fensive weapons <strong>of</strong> the whole conflict. However, it<br />
was a relatively simple, unsophisticated weapon, <strong>and</strong><br />
129
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
that, combined with its effectiveness, surely meant<br />
that it could be improved. There was certainly the<br />
possibility <strong>of</strong> giving it much greater endurance <strong>and</strong><br />
straight-line performance, but increasing the range<br />
always resulted in a lowering <strong>of</strong> the strike rate, since<br />
the torpedoes had no self-directive capability. There is<br />
reason to believe that scientists in Germany had actually<br />
perfected a passive acoustic homing device to<br />
steer a torpedo towards a submarine sound source by<br />
1936, <strong>and</strong> that the new weapon had been kept back<br />
from production to preserve its secrecy.<br />
FOXING THE 'FOXER'<br />
The relatively simple first-generation devices, which<br />
were restricted to fairly low speeds, proved effective<br />
against slow-moving targets such as merchant ships,<br />
but less so against warships, which <strong>of</strong>ten simply outpaced<br />
them. Towed noise-makers (known as 'Foxers';<br />
originally no more than two lengths <strong>of</strong> iron pipe,<br />
Below: U14Q6, one <strong>of</strong> the few operational Type XV<strong>II</strong><br />
Walter-engined boats to be completed. She was scuttled<br />
in May 1945 but was salvaged <strong>and</strong> taken to the United<br />
States. A sister-boat, U1407, went to the UK.<br />
30<br />
chained loosely together so that they constantly<br />
crashed into each other) could also dupe these<br />
devices, <strong>and</strong> it was September 1943 before German<br />
scientists perfected a means <strong>of</strong> outwitting them.<br />
When a torpedo fitted with the second-generation<br />
T5 or 'Zaunkönig' ('Wren') passive acoustic seeker<br />
detected a sound source in a small arc ahead <strong>of</strong> it, a<br />
subsidiary circuit operated a simple solenoid switch<br />
to actuate the small rudder vane. This caused the torpedo<br />
to turn sharply to starboard <strong>and</strong> run in a circular<br />
path for a predetermined period (long enough, in fact,<br />
for it to describe a semi-circle) before turning sharply<br />
to starboard once more <strong>and</strong> setting <strong>of</strong>f on its original<br />
track again. In this way, the torpedo skirted the noisemaker<br />
<strong>and</strong> homed in on the propeller noise <strong>of</strong> the ship<br />
towing it instead. Then, on encountering the noise <strong>of</strong><br />
the ship dead ahead, the torpedo turned to perform the<br />
circling manoeuvre once more. The diameter <strong>of</strong> the<br />
semi-circular track the torpedo described being less<br />
than the length <strong>of</strong> the ship plus the distance the latter<br />
covered in the intervening period, it would strike the<br />
target from the beam. It has been estimated that 700<br />
T5s were fired in anger, <strong>and</strong> that 77 (11 per cent)<br />
scored hits. The US Navy introduced the similarly
TYPE XV<strong>II</strong>B<br />
Type: Coastal submarine<br />
Displacement: 317 tonnes (312 tons) surfaced;<br />
363 tonnes (357 tons) submerged<br />
Length: 41.50m (136.17ft)<br />
Submerged speed: 21.5 knots<br />
equipped Mark 27 torpedo in 1944, <strong>and</strong> in the last<br />
years <strong>of</strong> the war, 106 were fired in combat, scoring 33<br />
hits (31 per cent).<br />
Another approach was to fit a form <strong>of</strong> automatic<br />
pilot, which caused the torpedo to make a series <strong>of</strong><br />
pre-programmed turns after it had run a preset distance,<br />
in the hope that a torpedo fired in the general<br />
direction <strong>of</strong> a convoy would turn <strong>and</strong> hit a ship purely<br />
by chance. Neither the success rate <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Federapparat-Torpedo, nor that <strong>of</strong> its more sophisticated<br />
successor, the Lagcnunabhangiger-Torpedo<br />
(which could be fired from depths <strong>of</strong> up to 50m;<br />
164ft), seems to have been recorded. Later U-boats<br />
had <strong>their</strong> six forward-facing torpedo tubes organised<br />
into an array which covered 10 degrees <strong>of</strong> arc; firing<br />
all six in a salvo gave a much-improved chance <strong>of</strong> hitting<br />
the target. It is obvious that the same guidance<br />
system which was applied to the glider bombs <strong>and</strong> the<br />
guided missiles could also have been applied to torpedoes,<br />
even though keeping a precise track <strong>of</strong> the<br />
missile's course would naturally have been more difficult.<br />
It is inconceivable that an experimental programme,<br />
at least, was not initiated. Certainly, one <strong>of</strong><br />
the Kriegsmarine's original submarine warfare<br />
instructors, Werner Fürbringer, suggested it.<br />
A viable alternative to the torpedo was to lay mines<br />
in the path <strong>of</strong> the oncoming enemy (particularly if this<br />
was a slow-moving convoy), <strong>and</strong> a variety <strong>of</strong> submarine-launched<br />
mines were developed. The Torpedo-<br />
Ankertaumine (TMA) had a 215kg (4751b) explosive<br />
charge, <strong>and</strong> was attached to an anchor which allowed<br />
it to float at a predetermined height, while the<br />
Torpedo-Grundminen lay on the seabed in shallower<br />
water. They came in two sizes: the 500kg (llOOlb)<br />
TMB <strong>and</strong> the 1000kg (22001b) TMC. All three mines<br />
were dimensioned to allow them to be deployed<br />
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
Submerged range: 210km (130 miles)<br />
Armament: 2 x 533mm (21 in) torpedo tubes<br />
Crew: 1,9<br />
Above: The Type XV<strong>II</strong> boats had both conventional diesel<br />
engines <strong>and</strong> a single Walter closed-cycle engine. They<br />
were designed for coastal operations.<br />
through a st<strong>and</strong>ard 533mm (21in) torpedo tube <strong>and</strong><br />
could be fitted with a variety <strong>of</strong> remotely actuated detonators,<br />
magnetic or acoustic.<br />
THE NEW GENERATION OF SUBMARINES<br />
There was little development <strong>of</strong> the basic submarine<br />
in the inter-war period, except that the once-popular<br />
saddle-tank design, in which the buoyancy chambers<br />
were located outside the pressure hull, gave way more<br />
<strong>and</strong> more to the double hull, in which they enclosed it<br />
almost completely <strong>and</strong> were themselves contained<br />
within a light enclosure which could be shaped to<br />
improve sea-keeping <strong>and</strong> performance. In Germany,<br />
developments in the late 1930s were aimed only at<br />
increasing the size <strong>and</strong> endurance <strong>of</strong> existing types,<br />
not making any radical changes to <strong>their</strong> design.<br />
However, by 1941, experimental boats with a new<br />
type <strong>of</strong> powerplant which did not need atmospheric<br />
oxygen had been produced, <strong>and</strong> were proving to be<br />
quite remarkable. The powerplant in question was,<br />
once again, the creation <strong>of</strong> the prolific Pr<strong>of</strong>essor<br />
Hellmuth Walter, whom we have already met.<br />
Walter had constructed a small experimental boat,<br />
the V30, launched on 19 January 1940, which displaced<br />
just 73.8 tonnes (75 tons) submerged. He<br />
equipped it with a steam turbine, fed by a variant <strong>of</strong><br />
the liquid-fuel motors which were to power the VI<br />
flying bomb's launch catapult, producing <strong>their</strong> steam<br />
by the chemical reaction <strong>of</strong> hydrogen peroxide with a<br />
catalyst. Walter soon discovered that his submarine<br />
could make almost 30 knots submerged - around<br />
three times the submerged speed <strong>of</strong> any conventional<br />
131
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
TYPE XXI A<br />
Type: Ocean-going submarine<br />
Displacement: 1620 tonnes (1595 tons) surfaced<br />
1848 tonnes (1819 tons) submerged<br />
Length: 76.70m (251.66ft)<br />
Submerged speed: 17 knots<br />
Above: The Type XXIs were ocean-going submarines <strong>of</strong><br />
over 1600 tonnes (1575 tons), the size <strong>of</strong> a small destroyer<br />
<strong>of</strong> the period. They could make 17 knots submerged.<br />
submarine running on battery power - <strong>and</strong> that led<br />
him to suggest to the Kriegsmarine the construction<br />
<strong>of</strong> a fleet <strong>of</strong> similarly powered submarine warships.<br />
When asked where he proposed to store the large<br />
quantities <strong>of</strong> reagent <strong>and</strong> fuel that would be required,<br />
he produced a design for a two-decker submarine, in<br />
itself virtually two existing double hulls joined into a<br />
tigure '8', the bottom portion <strong>of</strong> which would serve<br />
132<br />
Submerged range: 525km (325 miles) at 6 knots<br />
Armament: 6 x 533mm (21 in) torpedo tubes;<br />
4 x 20mm AA guns<br />
Crew: 57<br />
exclusively as 'bunkerage'. Someone at this proposal<br />
meeting noted that it would be just as easy to fill that<br />
lower section with batteries.<br />
THE'ELECTRO-BOATS'<br />
Whatever the method adopted, as the war wore on, it<br />
was to become harder <strong>and</strong> harder for U-boat comm<strong>and</strong>ers<br />
to remain on the surface, even at night,<br />
Below: The conning tower top <strong>of</strong> a (scuttled) Type XXI.<br />
Note the retractable radio antenna <strong>and</strong> the faired-in<br />
machine gun emplacements.
TYPE XX<strong>II</strong>I<br />
Type: Coastal submarine<br />
Displacement: 233 tonnes<br />
(230 tons) surfaced; 260 tonnes<br />
(256 tons) submerged<br />
Length: 34.7m (113.75ft)<br />
Submerged speed: 22 knots<br />
Above: The other 'Electro-boats' were the much smaller<br />
Type XX<strong>II</strong>Is, intended for coastal operations. Even with a<br />
complement <strong>of</strong> just 14, they were cramped, much <strong>of</strong> the<br />
interior being given over to batteries.<br />
thanks to the increasingly effective airborne anti-submarine<br />
patrols mounted by the RAF <strong>and</strong> the USAAF.<br />
If they were to continue to wage war effectively, they<br />
would have to be provided with boats which could<br />
stay submerged for extended periods <strong>and</strong> perform<br />
more effectively under water, <strong>and</strong> it was along these<br />
lines that the bulk <strong>of</strong> research was carried out. More<br />
'Walter' boats were built or at least were in the course<br />
<strong>of</strong> construction when the war ended. The two Type<br />
XV<strong>II</strong>B boats which were successfully salvaged after<br />
having been scuttled in Hamburg harbour were later<br />
transferred to the US Navy <strong>and</strong> the Royal Navy, who<br />
operated them experimentally, but the powerplant<br />
required massive quantities <strong>of</strong> fairly exotic fuel <strong>and</strong><br />
was most temperamental. It would perhaps become a<br />
valid solution in the fullness <strong>of</strong> time, but that was<br />
something the Kriegsmarine did not have, <strong>and</strong> it was<br />
essential to look at other suggestions.<br />
THE TYPE XXI AND TYPE XX<strong>II</strong>I<br />
The <strong>of</strong>f-the-cuff remark to Walter about using the<br />
lower-deck space <strong>of</strong> his two-deck submarine for batteries<br />
was to have far-reaching consequences, <strong>and</strong> to<br />
lead to the construction <strong>of</strong> two classes <strong>of</strong> submarines<br />
which were actually faster submerged than they were<br />
on the surface: the ocean-going Type XXI; <strong>and</strong> the<br />
smaller, coastal Type XX<strong>II</strong>I. They were not the first to<br />
so perform; right at the end <strong>of</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I, the British<br />
constructed a class <strong>of</strong> 'hunter-killer' submarines, the<br />
'R' class, with the 220-volt batteries taken from the<br />
much bigger T class, combined with a spindle-form<br />
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
Submerged range: 325km<br />
(202 miles) at 4 knots<br />
Armament: 2 x 533mm (21in)<br />
torpedo tubes<br />
Crew: 14<br />
hull from an earlier era, with a speed on the surface <strong>of</strong><br />
9.5 knots <strong>and</strong> 15 knots submerged. They proved to be<br />
difficult to control, <strong>and</strong> were stricken prematurely,<br />
though R4 stayed in service until the early 1930s.<br />
The two types <strong>of</strong> German combat submarines were<br />
quite different in character. The Type XXI11 was<br />
strictly for local deployment in coastal waters, if only<br />
by virtue <strong>of</strong> its size. It displaced 233 tonnes (230 tons)<br />
on the surface, was 34.7m (113.8ft) long <strong>and</strong> 3m<br />
(9.8ft) abeam, <strong>and</strong> had a crew <strong>of</strong> just 14. Its biggest<br />
weakness as a warship was that it carried just two<br />
533mm (21 in) torpedoes, pre-loaded into two bow<br />
tubes, <strong>and</strong> no re-loads. Almost 500 were scheduled to<br />
be built at yards in Germany (Kiel <strong>and</strong> Hamburg),<br />
France (Toulon), Italy (Genoa <strong>and</strong> Montefalcone),<br />
<strong>and</strong> Russia (Nikolaev), but only the German yards <strong>of</strong><br />
Deutsche Werft <strong>and</strong> Germaniawerft actually launched<br />
any boats, the German Army having been driven back<br />
out <strong>of</strong> occupied territory before any could be completed.<br />
The first boat, U2321, was launched at<br />
Hamburg on 17 April 1944 <strong>and</strong> a total <strong>of</strong> 63 had been<br />
completed by the time the war ended. However, problems<br />
<strong>of</strong> commissioning meant that only 10 operational<br />
patrols were made from March to May 1945;<br />
six merchant ships were sunk, two <strong>of</strong> them, by<br />
U2336, <strong>of</strong>f Scotl<strong>and</strong> on 7 May, being amongst the last<br />
sinkings <strong>of</strong> the war.<br />
As its powerplant, the Type XX<strong>II</strong>I had a single<br />
580bhp MWM diesel engine which drove two electric<br />
motors either directly or via the extensive batteries.<br />
The principal electric motor produced 580shp <strong>and</strong><br />
could produce a submerged top speed <strong>of</strong> 22 knots; the<br />
secondary, 'creeping', motor produced just 35shp for<br />
a speed <strong>of</strong> 5 knots, but in almost complete silence.<br />
Using the secondary motor alone, the submarine<br />
could stay submerged, making a speed <strong>of</strong> 4 knots, for<br />
1 33
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
134<br />
40 hours. Like the bigger, Type XXI boats, they were<br />
streamlined in appearance, with all external fittings<br />
either faired-in or removed.<br />
The Type XXI was a more sophisticated boat than<br />
the Type XX<strong>II</strong>I; it was 76.7m (251.6ft) long <strong>and</strong> 6.6m<br />
(21.6ft) abeam, displacing 1620 tonnes (1595 tons) on<br />
the surface. Type XXIs were equipped with six torpedo<br />
tubes, all <strong>of</strong> them situated in the bow, <strong>and</strong> a total <strong>of</strong><br />
23 torpedoes (they were also to have carried four<br />
30mm anti-aircraft cannon, but never did, a pair <strong>of</strong><br />
20mm cannon being substituted). Like the coastal<br />
boats, they were double-decked, the frames being fitted<br />
outside the pressure hulls, which suited the modular,<br />
prefabricated building method by then in use in<br />
Germany. Their powerplants were considerably more<br />
powerful, <strong>of</strong> course: they had two MAN diesels <strong>of</strong><br />
lOOObhp each driving two propeller shafts via two<br />
125()shp electric motors or two 57shp 'creeping 1<br />
motors; on the surface they could make 15.5 knots<br />
<strong>and</strong> submerged, on main engines, over 17 knots, with<br />
5 knots available from the auxiliary motors.<br />
Almost 700 Type XXIs were scheduled to have<br />
been built by Blohm & Voss in Hamburg, Deschimag<br />
in Bremen, <strong>and</strong> Schichau in Danzig (Gdansk), but<br />
only 121 were actually commissioned. Many more<br />
were bombed on the slip prior to launching <strong>and</strong> a substantial<br />
number remained incomplete at the end <strong>of</strong> the<br />
war. Some <strong>of</strong> them - <strong>and</strong> some <strong>of</strong> the boats already in<br />
commission - were taken to the Soviet Union <strong>and</strong><br />
completed there <strong>and</strong> formed the backbone <strong>of</strong> the Red<br />
Navy's submarine arm for many years. Indeed, so<br />
greedy were the Soviets for German submarines that<br />
they loaded the hangar decks <strong>of</strong> the incomplete hull <strong>of</strong><br />
the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin with U-boat hull<br />
sections <strong>and</strong> proceeded to tow it the length <strong>of</strong> the<br />
Baltic to Leningrad, but it hit a mine in the Gulf <strong>of</strong><br />
Finl<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> sank. Only two Type XXI boats ever left<br />
port on operational patrols <strong>and</strong> neither fired a shot in<br />
anger. The advance in submarine operations which<br />
the Type XXI <strong>and</strong> Type XX<strong>II</strong>I represented cannot be<br />
overstated. They altered the world's navies' perceptions<br />
<strong>of</strong> what could be expected <strong>of</strong> a submarine, <strong>and</strong><br />
every design later produced, up to the modern<br />
'teardrops', reflected that.<br />
Left: The head <strong>of</strong> an extensible induction mast, or<br />
schnorkel tube. It took considerable ingenuity to produce<br />
a self-regulating valve system which was fast-enough<br />
acting to prevent large quantities <strong>of</strong> water being sucked<br />
into the submarine. The Dutch were the first to find a<br />
solution to the problem in about 1936.
Above: A 'Marder' ('Marten') midget submarine being<br />
launched by crane. The nature <strong>of</strong> the craft-it was no<br />
more than a torpedo with a small crew compartment<br />
replacing the warhead - is obvious.<br />
Below: The 'Molch' ('Salam<strong>and</strong>er') was slightly more<br />
sophisticated than the 'Marder'. It carried two underslung<br />
torpedoes <strong>and</strong> around 400 were built The 'Molch' was<br />
used against Allied shipping in the Scheldt.<br />
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
THE SCHNORKEL<br />
There was one more way to keep the boat submerged<br />
with its engines running, <strong>of</strong> course: let it breathe<br />
through a tube. This may seem an obvious solution,<br />
<strong>and</strong> indeed, the very earliest submariners had adopted<br />
it, but in a large boat travelling even at only 5 or so<br />
knots, a breathing tube was very difficult indeed to<br />
maintain in operation in anything but a flat-calm sea.<br />
The practical problems were largely solved, however,<br />
by about 1936, <strong>and</strong> in a somewhat unlikely quarter:<br />
the Netherl<strong>and</strong>s. When the German Army invaded in<br />
May 1940, examples <strong>of</strong> submarines with functional<br />
extensible induction masts (as the breathing tubes are<br />
properly known) were captured intact, but were never<br />
copied, <strong>and</strong> those fitted to Dutch submarines which<br />
the Kriegsmarine put into operation were removed.<br />
German submarine comm<strong>and</strong>ers 1 policy was to<br />
remain on the surface as much as possible, <strong>and</strong> only<br />
submerge to avoid escape or to make a particularly<br />
risky attack. As a result, U-boat comm<strong>and</strong>ers had no<br />
use for the snorting mast, at least, not until the dark<br />
days <strong>of</strong> 1943, when they were regularly being forced<br />
to dive by anti-submarine patrols, <strong>and</strong> when a<br />
research programme was put in h<strong>and</strong> to replicate the<br />
135
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
results the Dutch had achieved. The first German submarine<br />
to have been fitted with a schnorkel seems to<br />
have been U264, <strong>and</strong> she was lost in February 1944<br />
during her initial attempt to use it. Some experts<br />
maintain that the first-generation schnorkels caused as<br />
many problems as they solved, but they achieved <strong>their</strong><br />
major objective <strong>of</strong> allowing the submarine to run submerged<br />
on its diesel engines, even if was a tricky<br />
business, <strong>and</strong> unpopular with the crew, who had been<br />
accustomed to a short watch on deck every now <strong>and</strong><br />
then. Tt could also be very dangerous, as the loss <strong>of</strong><br />
U264 indicates, as it was all too easy to run the headvalve<br />
(a simple ball valve at the end <strong>of</strong> the U-shaped<br />
top section <strong>of</strong> the induction tube) under water, whereupon<br />
the diesels would begin to suck the air out <strong>of</strong> the<br />
boat's interior <strong>and</strong> would create a very considerable<br />
under-pressure before they stopped.<br />
MIDGET SUBMARINES<br />
Given <strong>their</strong> almost complete lack <strong>of</strong> success, it comes<br />
as something <strong>of</strong> a surprise to discover the extent <strong>of</strong> the<br />
German Navy's midget submarine programme. At<br />
least six different types <strong>of</strong> craft were produced in considerable<br />
numbers - certainly over 1500 in total -<br />
from 1943 (the programme was behind those <strong>of</strong><br />
136<br />
Britain, Italy, <strong>and</strong> especially Japan). The first types<br />
would more accurately be called semi-submersibles,<br />
for they all ran with <strong>their</strong> upper surfaces barely<br />
awash, the solitary crewman being able to see out<br />
through ports in the vestigial conning tower which<br />
enclosed his head. The first constructed was known as<br />
the 'Hecht' (Tike'); it was battery-powered <strong>and</strong> really<br />
little more than a manned torpedo with a detachable<br />
warhead. An improved model, the 'Neger'<br />
('Negro') had a petrol engine, <strong>and</strong> carried an underslung<br />
torpedo. Tt worked well enough, but its solitary<br />
crewman had to breathe oxygen, <strong>and</strong> was thus<br />
restricted in what he could do. Two larger one-man<br />
types, the 'Molch' ('Salam<strong>and</strong>er') <strong>and</strong> the 'Marder'<br />
('Marten'), were slightly more practical, with recirculating<br />
air supplies. The former carried two underslung<br />
torpedoes, <strong>and</strong> was used with some success against<br />
Allied shipping in the Scheldt in late 1944 <strong>and</strong> 1945.<br />
The 'Marder' carried just one torpedo but could submerge<br />
completely in order to attack.<br />
Below: The 'Biber' ('Beaver') was the third one-man<br />
midget submarine type. It could be transported by road or<br />
by specially equipped 'mother' submarines <strong>and</strong> proved to<br />
be quite successful in 1944-45.
The next step was to produce a true submersible, a<br />
proper submarine in miniature. The first attempt<br />
resulted in a single-seater experimental vehicle called<br />
the 'Hai' ('Shark'), powered by a petrol engine <strong>and</strong><br />
batteries, which could make 20 knots for two hours on<br />
its electric motor. The 'Hai' was developed into the<br />
one-man 'Biber' ('Beaver'), which displaced 3.04<br />
tonnes (3 tons) <strong>and</strong> carried two torpedoes slung<br />
beneath the hull; a later version <strong>of</strong> the 'Biber' was<br />
capable <strong>of</strong> carrying a second crewmember. Over 300<br />
were built <strong>and</strong> used with a measure <strong>of</strong> success in the<br />
Scheldt Estuary <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong>f Murmansk in the convoy<br />
assembly area. The 'Biber' could be transported by<br />
road or by air as well as by specially modified conventional<br />
submarines.<br />
SUBMARINES AND THEIR WEAPONS<br />
Above: The best <strong>of</strong> all the German <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong> midget<br />
submarines was the two-man 15.2-tonne (15-ton)<br />
'Seehund' ('Seal'), the only type which was truly capable<br />
<strong>of</strong> operating independently.<br />
The most successful <strong>of</strong> the German midget submarines<br />
was the two-man 'Seehund' ('Seal'). This<br />
was much bigger at 15.2 tonnes (15 tons) displacement,<br />
<strong>and</strong> had jettisonable auxiliary fuel tanks, which<br />
gave it a range <strong>of</strong> around 800km (500 miles). It could<br />
make 8 knots on the surface <strong>and</strong> 6 knots submerged.<br />
The 'Seehund' also gained some success in the mouth<br />
<strong>of</strong> the Scheldt. Unconfirmed reports from German<br />
sources claim that it also operated against merchant<br />
shipping in the Thames estuary <strong>and</strong> <strong>of</strong>f Margate.<br />
37
CHAPTER TWELVE<br />
Nuclear, Biological<br />
<strong>and</strong> Chemical<br />
<strong>Weapons</strong><br />
When war broke out in 1939, it was feared that poison gas would be used even more<br />
widely than it had been in <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> I. To that fear was added the threat <strong>of</strong><br />
biological agents, while physicists were struggling with the possibility <strong>of</strong> harnessing<br />
nuclear fission to produce a bomb the likes <strong>of</strong> which had never been seen.<br />
In December 1938, German physicists Otto Hahn<br />
<strong>and</strong> Frit/ Strassman demonstrated the fission (splitting)<br />
<strong>of</strong> the uranium atom. This caused a stir in the<br />
scientific community, <strong>and</strong> ripples spread outside it,<br />
even as far as the HWA, to which several scientists<br />
wrote, suggesting that the phenomenon might conceivably<br />
be used in a bomb. The notion made slow<br />
progress, but by late 1939 a steering committee had<br />
Above: The Heinkel He 177A-5; an He 177 was modified to<br />
carry the never-completed German atom bomb.<br />
Left: A US serviceman is confronted by massed ranks <strong>of</strong><br />
German mustard gas shells afterthe war.<br />
been formed. It had just one item on its agenda: could<br />
a nuclear reactor to produce fissionable material be<br />
built? As a rider, subsidiary questions were posed<br />
about costs <strong>and</strong> timescale. A research programme was<br />
drawn up, <strong>and</strong> six university-based projects were<br />
established. By 1941, it had become clear that the<br />
notion was feasible, <strong>and</strong> the steering committee<br />
reported to HWA that a reactor could <strong>and</strong> should be<br />
built, <strong>and</strong> that it should use as its moderator, deutrium,<br />
also known as 'heavy water'. The entire project<br />
went downhill from there, but it would be a long<br />
while before that was to become obvious. By 1942,<br />
five different laboratories were experimenting with<br />
atomic piles, each one with a different theory <strong>of</strong> how<br />
39
NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS<br />
it should be constructed, <strong>and</strong> each one in ignorance <strong>of</strong><br />
what the others were (or were not) doing. At least one<br />
team - that led by Werner Heiscnberg, Nobel laureate<br />
<strong>and</strong> dean <strong>of</strong> the Gentian physics community, who had<br />
recently been appointed Director <strong>of</strong> the Kaiser<br />
Wilhelm Institute at Dahlem - is reported to have<br />
deliberately exploited the confusion which resulted to<br />
drag its feet. Convinced that a bomb could be contructed,<br />
Heisenberg set out to slow the process down,<br />
<strong>and</strong> make as little actual progress as possible towards<br />
its conclusion. Eventually, Albert Speer, Hitler's<br />
Minister for Munitions, lost patience, <strong>and</strong> dem<strong>and</strong>ed<br />
from Heisenberg a prediction <strong>of</strong> the length <strong>of</strong> time<br />
which would be required to actually manufacture a<br />
bomb. Heisenberg prevaricated still, but eventually<br />
said that he believed it might be possible by 1945.<br />
Speer decided to set up a single research project<br />
charged with constructing a reactor. He assembled<br />
some <strong>of</strong> the best brains in the field <strong>and</strong> asked them to<br />
submit a budget. They requested 40,000 Rcichsmarks,<br />
less than the cost <strong>of</strong> a single PzKpfw IV tank, <strong>and</strong><br />
this, more than anything, seems to have convinced<br />
him that the project had a very low likelihood <strong>of</strong> success.<br />
From then on, it seems, the nuclear research programme<br />
concentrated on producing a reactor suitable<br />
for power generation, rather than one to produce fissionable<br />
material for a bomb. Naturally, such a power<br />
station would inevitably produce small quantities <strong>of</strong><br />
fissionable material as a by-product, but it would be a<br />
very long time before it would be possible to build a<br />
bomb, even if the reactor worked perfectly.<br />
Two atomic piles were eventually built, one near<br />
Hechingen, the other near Erfurt, both using deutrium<br />
as <strong>their</strong> moderator. Neither actually achieved a chain<br />
reaction, largely because they were too small. By that<br />
time - late 1944 - the infrastructure <strong>of</strong> German industry<br />
was becoming increasingly chaotic. Such small<br />
supplies <strong>of</strong> uranium ore as were available - from a<br />
small field in Belgium <strong>and</strong> another in Bohemia - were<br />
running low, <strong>and</strong> thanks to a successful bombing raid<br />
by the RAE on the deutrium production plant in<br />
Norway, that was in short supply too. The programme<br />
was already dead in its infancy, <strong>and</strong> one might even<br />
say that it was stillborn.<br />
There was perhaps a subsidiary use <strong>of</strong> uranium as<br />
a weapon <strong>of</strong> war under consideration. In 1943, HWA<br />
commissioned a report from a biological laboratory<br />
on the toxicity <strong>of</strong> radioactive material. From this it<br />
has been widely concluded that uranium dust was to<br />
have been employed as cargo in a conventional highexplosive<br />
bomb or rocket warhead, but there is no<br />
firm evidence to support this speculation <strong>and</strong> certainly<br />
no evidence to suggest that even the most basic<br />
experimentation ever took place outside the laboratory.<br />
One could just as well conclude that the project<br />
was aimed at improving worker safety.<br />
BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS<br />
Outside very special limits, suicidal attacks make little<br />
tactical sense, <strong>and</strong> a suicidal strategy makes none<br />
at all. Those truisms have always done more than pure<br />
ethics or morality to control the use <strong>of</strong> one <strong>of</strong> the most<br />
dreadful potential weapons known to man: disease.<br />
Indeed, in limited 'experiments', where the vectors <strong>of</strong><br />
the disease in question could be completely controlled,<br />
man has shown himself willing to use biological<br />
agents <strong>of</strong> death. The US Army used it in the form<br />
<strong>of</strong> smallpox-infected blankets distributed to native<br />
Americans, <strong>and</strong> the Japanese did too in Manchuria in<br />
the 1930s. But as an everyday weapon <strong>of</strong> war, it had<br />
one enormous disadvantage: it was as likely to kill<br />
you, in the long run, as it was to kill your enemy. That<br />
is not to say that every country did not have its biological<br />
warfare research establishments, but more to<br />
suggest that much <strong>of</strong> the research carried out in them<br />
was aimed more at providing a defence against the<br />
agents <strong>of</strong> disease. There are persistent reports that<br />
tests <strong>of</strong> biological agents were carried out on unwill-<br />
Left: Like all armies, the Wehrmacht took chemical<br />
weapons very seriously, as the protective clothing <strong>and</strong><br />
warning signs on this locker indicate.
ing participants in concentration <strong>and</strong> extermination<br />
camps in Germany, <strong>and</strong> in the light <strong>of</strong> other undeniable<br />
findings from the people investigating the events<br />
in those places, we have to leave the question open.<br />
CHEMICAL WEAPONS<br />
More than half a century on, there is no lessening <strong>of</strong><br />
the revulsion felt against the obscenities committed in<br />
the Nazi death camps or against the men <strong>and</strong> women<br />
who actually committed the acts, <strong>and</strong> that is as it<br />
should be. But besides the ethical <strong>and</strong> moral aspects,<br />
there is also the purely practical to be considered, for<br />
the destruction <strong>of</strong> six million or more people could<br />
only proceed on an industrial scale. The mass murders<br />
had to carried out under factory conditions. Very soon<br />
it became obvious that the only acceptable method<br />
would be by mass poisoning, the toxin to be delivered<br />
in the form <strong>of</strong> a gas. In the event, this murder <strong>of</strong> millions<br />
<strong>of</strong> helpless people was to be the only widespread<br />
use <strong>of</strong> chemical warfare during <strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. This is<br />
apart from Italian forces using phosgene in Abyssinia<br />
in 1938, the Japanese use <strong>of</strong> it in China from the mid-<br />
1930s to the end <strong>of</strong> 1941 in some 840 separate incidents,<br />
<strong>and</strong> reports that something described as 'toxic<br />
smoke' was used during the siege <strong>of</strong> Sebastopol.<br />
German troops initiated the use <strong>of</strong> gas as a weapon<br />
<strong>of</strong> war in February 1915, when they fired shells filled<br />
with xylyl bromide (a lachrymogen, or tear gas)<br />
against Russian forces. The operation failed, for the<br />
gas was frozen solid in the shells, <strong>and</strong> dispersed only<br />
very slowly. Two months later, they used chlorine gas<br />
against British <strong>and</strong> Empire troops at Ypres with<br />
greater success, <strong>and</strong> from then on it became a recognised<br />
part <strong>of</strong> both sides' armouries. But it was not that<br />
effective; gas was responsible for only just over one<br />
per cent <strong>of</strong> battlefield deaths during the entire war. It<br />
was slightly more effective as a wounding agent -<br />
5.69 per cent <strong>of</strong> all injuries were caused by gas - <strong>and</strong><br />
from a military point <strong>of</strong> view, wounding is actually<br />
more desirable, since caring for wounded both on <strong>and</strong><br />
<strong>of</strong>f the battlefield eats into precious resources.<br />
By 1919, there was a limited repertoire <strong>of</strong> gases<br />
available; chlorine, mustard gas, phosgene <strong>and</strong> a few<br />
others. By the time two decades had passed, there was<br />
a whole menu <strong>of</strong> more effective agents available,<br />
including some very exotic compounds which had<br />
been produced during research into insecticides <strong>and</strong><br />
herbicides. These compounds were organo-phosphates,<br />
<strong>and</strong> were to become the basis for what we now<br />
call nerve gases. The original nerve gas, known as<br />
Tabun, was first synthesised in 1936 into a substance<br />
NUCLEAR, BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL WEAPONS<br />
Above: The sinister facade <strong>of</strong> a German mustard gas<br />
storage building, in which the agent was kept in huge<br />
concrete vats.<br />
called ethyl-dimethyl-amido-phosphor-cyanidate. By<br />
1942, a factory to produce it to the tune <strong>of</strong> 1016<br />
tonnes f 1000 tons) per month had been established at<br />
Dyhernfurth in Silesia (now Brzeg Dolny in Pol<strong>and</strong>).<br />
In 1938, a second <strong>and</strong> even more effective organophosphate,<br />
isopropyl methyl-phosphoro-fluoridate,<br />
was synthesised. Known as Sarin, it proved to be very<br />
much harder to manufacture on an industrial scale<br />
than Tabun, <strong>and</strong> even by 1945, only a small pilot plant<br />
had been set up. By that time, a still more dangerous<br />
derivative, pinacolyl methyl-phosphoro-fluoridate<br />
had been produced, under the name Soman, though<br />
little progress had been made with this by 1945.<br />
It appears that until the factory producing Tabun<br />
was overrun by the Red Army in early 1945, the<br />
Allies knew nothing <strong>of</strong> these 'weapons', making <strong>their</strong><br />
existence one <strong>of</strong> the best-kept German secrets <strong>of</strong><br />
<strong>World</strong> <strong>War</strong> <strong>II</strong>. The first the British <strong>and</strong> Americans<br />
knew came from examining shells <strong>and</strong> bombs recovered<br />
from ammunition dumps (about half a million<br />
shells <strong>and</strong> 100,000 bombs, in all), <strong>and</strong> as the reality <strong>of</strong><br />
the situation sank in, the researchers were horrified to<br />
discover that they were confronted by a lethal agent,<br />
<strong>and</strong> that there was no known cure or antidote from<br />
exposure to it. That last factor, it is argued by many,<br />
was the real reason that Germany did not employ<br />
nerve gas, even in the final days. The Wehrmacht <strong>and</strong><br />
the SS could not be sure that the enemy did not also<br />
possess these simple <strong>and</strong> cheap weapons <strong>of</strong> mass<br />
destruction, <strong>and</strong> that the destruction which would<br />
result from <strong>their</strong> use would not be mutually assured.<br />
1 41
Page numbers in italics refer to picture<br />
captions.<br />
A-St<strong>of</strong>f 72, 88<br />
Achgelis, Gerd 54<br />
'Adam' howitzer 114<br />
'Aggregat'rockets 71-83<br />
A2 73<br />
A3 73<br />
A4 see V2 ballistic missile<br />
A5 73^,75<br />
A6-AIO 82-3<br />
air-to-air weapons 85-9<br />
aircraft<br />
gliders 41-3,45-8,55-6<br />
hybrid <strong>and</strong> composite 49-51<br />
jet 9-33<br />
rocket-powered 35^3<br />
rotary-wing 53-9<br />
tail-sitting 57<br />
see also air-to-air weapons<br />
'Amerikabomber' 30, 33<br />
anti-tank (AT) weapons /2/, 124-7<br />
Antwerp, missile attack on 68, 81, 83<br />
Antz, Hans 12<br />
'Anzio Annie' 114<br />
Arado, Ar 234 'BlitzTHechl' 17-19,<br />
21<br />
Argus pulse-jet engines 62, 63<br />
artillery 109-19<br />
autogiros 53, 54, 56, 58<br />
B-17 Flying Fortress 49, 77, 85<br />
B-29 Superfortress 25<br />
Ba 349 'Natter' ,?5, 39-41,43, 86<br />
Bachcm, Erich 39<br />
Ba/ooka, copied 726, 127<br />
Becker, Karl 71<br />
BellX-5 25<br />
'Biber' submarine 729, 136, 137<br />
'Big Bertha' 110-11<br />
biological weapons 140-1<br />
Blitzkrieg 111<br />
Blohm & Voss<br />
Bv40 41,43<br />
Bv 143 97,97<br />
Bv 246 'Hagelkorn' 97<br />
P. 212 26<br />
Bode, Karl 54,55<br />
Boeing-Vertol, V-22 Osprey 57<br />
bombs see flying bombs; missiles,<br />
air-to-surface<br />
Br-StolT 102<br />
Br<strong>and</strong>t, Edgar 116<br />
Braun, Wernher von 36,63,72,73,<br />
74,77,82, 105<br />
Brest-Litovsk, Siege <strong>of</strong> (1941) 114<br />
42<br />
Index<br />
Bulge, Battle <strong>of</strong> the (1944) 118<br />
Buzzbomb see. VI flying bomb<br />
C-St<strong>of</strong>f 38<br />
chemical weapons 139, 140, 141<br />
chlorine gas 141<br />
Cierva, Juan de la 53<br />
Cierva, C.I9 54<br />
'cross-Channel'guns 775, 116-17<br />
Crossbow, Operation 77<br />
'Deichselschlepp'system 41<br />
Delta <strong>II</strong>I 'Wespe' 37<br />
Delta IV 37<br />
DPS 39 37<br />
DFS 194 37<br />
DFS228 46<br />
DFS 230 45-6<br />
DFS 331 46<br />
DFS 346 46<br />
Dittmar, Heini 37-8<br />
Doblh<strong>of</strong>f, Friedrich von 59<br />
DoblhotTAVNF 342 59<br />
Dönitz, Karl 129<br />
Doodlebug see VI flying bomb<br />
'Dora' gun 111-13<br />
Dornberger, Walter 71, 72, 73, 75, 77<br />
Dornier, Claudius 26-7<br />
Dornier<br />
Do 19 28<br />
Do 217 95, 98<br />
Do 335 'Pfeil'/'Ameisenbär' 26, 27<br />
Douglas C-47/DC-3 19<br />
Düsenkanone 280 29<br />
EIOO 124<br />
Eben-Emael 45-6,56, 126<br />
Egret, HMS 96<br />
Eisenhammer, Operation 51<br />
'Electro-boats' 132-3<br />
Emergency Fighter Competition/<br />
Programme 24-6, 28<br />
EMW<br />
'Taifun' 107<br />
'Wasserfall' 101, 105-6, 707<br />
'Ente' aircraft 36<br />
'Eve' howitzer 114<br />
extermination camps 141<br />
Federapparal-Torpedo 131<br />
Fiedler, Willy 64<br />
Fieseler, Gerhard 37<br />
Fi eseler<br />
Fi 156 'Storch' 39<br />
Fi 103 see VI flying bomb<br />
fin-stabilised, discarding sabots<br />
(FSDSs) 116<br />
Flak Rakete l 103<br />
Flettner, Anton 57-8, 59<br />
Flettner<br />
FI 282 'Kolibri' 53, 57, 58-9<br />
FI 184 58<br />
FI 185 58<br />
F1265 58<br />
FI 339 59<br />
flying bombs<br />
Japanese 69<br />
see also VI flying bomb<br />
Focke, Karl 54<br />
Focke Achgelis<br />
Fa 61 53,54<br />
Fa 225 55-6<br />
Fa 266 'Hornisse'/Fa 223 'Drache'<br />
54-5<br />
Fa 269 56-7<br />
Fa 284 57<br />
Fa 330 'Bachstelze' 56<br />
Focke-Wulf<br />
FW 190 30,71,87<br />
FW 190A-8 57<br />
FW 190A-8/R2 39<br />
FW 200 'Condor' 30, 94<br />
Ta 183 25,30<br />
Ta400 30<br />
Triebfliigel' 57<br />
'fortress smashers 1 113<br />
'Foxer' 130<br />
'Frilz-X' see Ruhrstahl, X-1<br />
FSDSs (fin-stabilised, discarding<br />
sabots) 116<br />
FX ]400tt?eRuhrstahI,X-l<br />
FZG76 83<br />
Gall<strong>and</strong>, Adolf 14, 16,85<br />
Georgii, Walter 37<br />
Gerät 041 'Karl' 113-14<br />
Gerät 104 29, 87<br />
Gerät 'MunchhauseiT 87<br />
'Gerät-Schlinge' 43<br />
Gerlich, Hermann 125<br />
Gersenhauer, Helmut 55<br />
girogliders 56<br />
girokitcs 56<br />
gliders 41-3,45-8,55-6<br />
Gloster<br />
E.28/39 11, 15<br />
'Meteor' 64<br />
'Goliath' tank 7<br />
Goring, Hermann 9<br />
Gosslau, Fritz 63<br />
Gotha<br />
Go 229 31,32,33<br />
Go 242/244 48<br />
Graf Zeppelin (ship) 134
grenade launchers 126,121<br />
GT 1200 99<br />
Günter, Siegfried <strong>and</strong> Walter 10<br />
'Gustav'gun 77'0, 111-13<br />
Hahn, Max 10<br />
Hahn, Otto 139<br />
'Hai' submarine 137<br />
'Hccht' submarine 136<br />
Heereswaffenamt (HWA) HI, 118<br />
Heinkel, Ernst 10<br />
Heinkel<br />
He 70 10<br />
He 111 10,68<br />
He 111Z'Zwilling' 47<br />
He 162 'SpatzTSalam<strong>and</strong>er' 9, 12,<br />
13,22-4<br />
He 176 10,35-6<br />
He 177 'Greif 28,29,87<br />
He I77A-5 139<br />
He 178 10-11,35<br />
He 274 29<br />
He 277 29<br />
He 280 11-12, 14<br />
P. 1077 'Julia 1 41<br />
P. 1078C 26<br />
Heisenberg, Werner 140<br />
helicopters see rotary-wing aircraft<br />
Henschel 27-8<br />
Hs 117 'Schmetterling' 88,99,<br />
101-3<br />
Hs 132 28<br />
Hs 135 28<br />
Hs217 'Föhn' 40<br />
Hs 293 28, 85, 88, 93-7, 99<br />
Hs294 91,98,99<br />
Hs 298 29, 88, 99<br />
Hertel, Heinrich 26, 33, 48<br />
HFB 320 'Hansa' 22<br />
'High-pressure Pump' 111-19<br />
Himmler, Heinrich 82<br />
Hirth, Hellmuth 10<br />
Hitler, Adolf 7<br />
<strong>and</strong> aircraft 14-15<br />
<strong>and</strong> artillery development 1 1 1<br />
<strong>and</strong> the missile programmes 75, 77,<br />
107<br />
<strong>and</strong> submarines 129<br />
<strong>and</strong> tank development 122<br />
Hochdruckpumpe ('High-pressure<br />
Pump') 117-/9<br />
Horten, Walter <strong>and</strong> Reimar 31-3<br />
Horten<br />
Ho <strong>II</strong> 31<br />
Ho V<strong>II</strong>I 32<br />
Ho IX 31, 32, 33<br />
P. 18 33<br />
HWA (Heereswaffenamt) 111, 118<br />
ICBMs 82<br />
<strong>II</strong> Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 100<br />
(IT/KG 100) 95-6<br />
<strong>II</strong>I Gruppe/Kampfgeschwader 100<br />
(ITT/KG 100) 92<br />
ltd! U i (ship) 93<br />
'Jagdverb<strong>and</strong> T 16<br />
Janus, HMS 93<br />
Japan, suicide missiles 69,71<br />
Junkers<br />
Ju 88 87<br />
Ju 88A-4 49, 50, 51<br />
Ju 88G 20, 51<br />
Ju 89/Ju 90 28<br />
Ju248 39<br />
Ju287 6, 19-22,33<br />
Ju288C 28-9<br />
Ju 290 30, 47<br />
Ju322 'Mammut' 33,48<br />
Ju388 29<br />
Ju390 30<br />
P. 128 26<br />
P. 130/P. 140 33<br />
K3gun 115<br />
K4gun 115<br />
K5 gun 109, 114-16<br />
K12gun 116-17<br />
Kamikaze campaign 71<br />
Kehl/Strassburg guidance system 102<br />
Kensche, Heinz 71<br />
King Tiger (SdKf/ 182 Tiger <strong>II</strong>) tank<br />
122, 123<br />
Kneymeyer, Siegfried 20, 25<br />
'Komm<strong>and</strong>o Lange 1 7l<br />
Kosin. Rüdinger 19<br />
Kramer, Max 88<br />
Kriegsmarine 58,59, 129<br />
Krupp, Friedrich Alfred 111<br />
Krupp, Gustav 111<br />
KwK36 124<br />
Lagenunabhängiger-Torpedo 131<br />
Leyte Gulf, Battle <strong>of</strong> 71<br />
Liege 110<br />
Lippisch, Alex<strong>and</strong>er 31,36-7<br />
'Loki' howitzer 114<br />
London<br />
artillery to fire at 118<br />
hit by flying bombs 68<br />
<strong>and</strong> the V2 missile 80-1, £3<br />
Ludendorff Bridge 17-19<br />
Luftwaffe 9,30, 129<br />
Lusser, Robert 12, 64<br />
Lvov 114<br />
M-St<strong>of</strong>f 72, 88<br />
machine guns, aircraft-mounted<br />
MaginotLine 110, 111, 112<br />
'Marder' submarine 135, 136<br />
Mark 27 torpedo 131<br />
Manch, Hans 12<br />
5-7<br />
NDEX<br />
'Maus'tank 122-3, 124<br />
"Meillerwagen' 77-9<br />
Messerschmitt<br />
Bf 109F 49,50,51<br />
Bf 110 87<br />
'Enzian 1 101<br />
Me 163 'Komet' 26, 35, 36, 37-9<br />
Me 262 'SchwafbeTSturmvogel' 9,<br />
11, 12-17,86<br />
Me 263 39<br />
Me 264 29, 30<br />
Me 321 'Gigant' 40,47-8<br />
Me 323 'Gigant' 47-8<br />
Me 328 29,41-3,71<br />
Me 410 87<br />
P. 1107 30<br />
P. I 110 <strong>and</strong> P. <strong>II</strong>I! 25-6<br />
mines, submarine-launched 131<br />
missiles<br />
air-to-surface 91-9<br />
inter-continental ballistic (ICBMs)<br />
82<br />
surface-to-air 101-7<br />
surface-to-surface 61-83<br />
see also air-to-air weapons<br />
Mistel arrangement 41,45,49-51<br />
'Mittelwerke' underground factory 69,<br />
77<br />
'Molch'submarine 135, 136<br />
Mueller, Max 11<br />
Multhopp, Hans 25<br />
'Münchausen 1 cannon 87<br />
Mussolini, Benito 46, 55<br />
mustard gas 139, 141<br />
'Neger 1 submarine 136<br />
nerve gases 141<br />
New York, possibility <strong>of</strong> bombing 30,<br />
81<br />
nuclear weapons 139—40<br />
Oberth, Hermann 71, 72<br />
'Odin' howil/er 114<br />
Ohain, Joachim Pabst von 10, 11<br />
Opel, Fritz von 36, 72<br />
organo-phosphates, <strong>and</strong> nerve gas 141<br />
P-Plane see V I flying bomb<br />
PaK36 124<br />
PaK41 125<br />
PaK44 125<br />
Panzer'Maus' 122-3, 724<br />
Panzerbüchse 4l 125<br />
Panzerfaust 30 726, 727<br />
Panzerjäger Tiger 727,122<br />
Panzerkampfwagen<br />
PzKpfw IV 69<br />
PzKpfw V Panther 7, 124<br />
PzKpfw VI Tiger 7, 121-2, 123<br />
'Panzerschreck' 727, 726, 127<br />
Paris, <strong>and</strong> the V2 missile 80
INDEX<br />
Paris Guns 109-10<br />
Tarsival 1 guidance system 102<br />
PC I400X see Ruhrstahl, X-1<br />
Teenemünde arrow shell'<br />
(Peenemünde Pfeilgeschoss) 113<br />
Peenemiinde research station 72, 73,<br />
74,77, 106, 107<br />
Pfeilgeschossen 115-16<br />
Philadelphia, USS 93<br />
phosgene 141<br />
Porsche, Ferdin<strong>and</strong> 727, 122<br />
Puff, Karl 124-5<br />
pulse-jet engines 62-3<br />
R4M 40, 87-K<br />
R-St<strong>of</strong>f 102<br />
radio-guided missiles 92<br />
Raketenpanzerbüchse, RPzB<br />
'Panzerschreck' I2I, 126, 127<br />
Raketenwerfer 43 'Püppchen' 125<br />
ramming tactics (Selbstopfermänner<br />
fighters) 39-43<br />
RAPs (rocket-assisted projectiles) 115<br />
'RATO' (Rocket-Assisted Take-Off)<br />
units 12<br />
'Reichenberg', Project 71<br />
Reichenberg IV 38, 69, 7 \<br />
Reichsluftfahrtininisteriwn (RLM) 9,<br />
30, 63^<br />
Reichsverteidigungs programme 21<br />
Reitsch, Hanna 31-2,39,41-3,53,<br />
54,71<br />
'Rheinbote' rockets 83<br />
Rheinmetall, Gerät 041 'Karl' 113-14<br />
Rheininetall-Borsig<br />
'Feuerlilie' 104-5<br />
'Hecht' 104<br />
'Rheintochter' 105, 106<br />
Rhön-Rossitten-Gesellschaft 45<br />
Rh.Z.61/9 'Rheinbote' missile 83<br />
rifles<br />
anti-tank 125<br />
recoilless 86<br />
rifling, in artillery pieces 109, 114<br />
RLM see Reichsluftfahrtministerium<br />
rocketry<br />
air-to-air weapons 87-8<br />
aircraft 35^3<br />
grenade launchers 726, 127<br />
rocket-assisted projectiles (RAPs)<br />
115<br />
surface-to-surface missiles 61-83<br />
Roma (ship) 92-3<br />
rotary-wing aircraft 53-9<br />
Rudat, Horst 50<br />
Ruhrstahl<br />
X-1 ('Fritz-X'; FX 1400) 28, 88,<br />
91-3<br />
X-4 29,88-9,91<br />
X-7 'Rottkäppchen' 88, 127<br />
144<br />
Salbei 107<br />
SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) 101-7<br />
Sarin 141<br />
Savannah, USS 93<br />
Scapa Flow 50, 51, 87<br />
Schlep, Helmut 12<br />
Schlieffen Plan 110<br />
'Schmetterling'missiles 88,99, 101-3<br />
Schinetz, Heinrich 92<br />
Schmidt, Paul 62, 63<br />
schnorkels 134, 135-6<br />
Scbastopol 112, 114<br />
'Seehund' submarine 137<br />
Selbstopfermänner fighters 39-43, 71<br />
Sherman tank 124<br />
Sikorsky, Igor 54<br />
Skorzcny, Otto 46, 55<br />
Soman 141<br />
Sombold, So 334 'Rammschussjäger'<br />
41<br />
Sonderkomm<strong>and</strong>o 9 design studio 32<br />
Sonderkornm<strong>and</strong>o Elbe 39<br />
sound, flying at speed <strong>of</strong> 46<br />
Spanish Civil <strong>War</strong> 91<br />
Spartan, HMS 93<br />
Speer, Albert 117, 140<br />
squeeze-bore guns 125<br />
'Staffel Leonidas' 43,71<br />
Slammer, Fritz 10, 36<br />
Slrassman, Fritz 139<br />
submarines 129, 131-4<br />
firing A4 missiles from 81<br />
girokites towed behind 56<br />
midget 729, 136-7<br />
schnorkels 134, 135-6<br />
torpedoes <strong>and</strong> mines 129—31<br />
suicide tactics 71<br />
surface-to-air missiles (SAMs) 101-7<br />
SV-St<strong>of</strong>f 82. 102<br />
'3x1000'bombers 30,32<br />
T5 acoustic seeker 130<br />
T-34tank 122, 124<br />
T-St<strong>of</strong>f 37, 38,66,77<br />
Tabun 141<br />
tail-sitting aircraft 57<br />
tanks 7,69, 121-4<br />
anti-tank weapons J21, 124-7<br />
tapered-bore guns 124-5<br />
tear gas 141<br />
Thiel, Walter 75, 77<br />
Thor'howitzer 1J3, 114<br />
Tiger tank 7, 121-2, 725<br />
TMA (Torpedo-Ankertaumine) 131<br />
TMB<strong>and</strong>TMC 131<br />
'Tonka' (fuel) 102<br />
Torpedo-Ankertaumine (TMA) 131<br />
torpedoes 129-31<br />
air-launched 97-9<br />
Troika-Schlepp' 46, 47<br />
Type XV<strong>II</strong> U-boat 130, 131, 133<br />
Type XXI U-boat 729, 132, 133, 134<br />
Type XX<strong>II</strong>I U-boat 133-4<br />
U-boats see submarines<br />
Udet, Ernst 31<br />
Ug<strong>and</strong>a, HMS 93<br />
United Kingdom<br />
hit by flying bombs 68<br />
<strong>and</strong> the V2 missile 80-1,5.?<br />
United States, possibility <strong>of</strong> bombing<br />
30, 33<br />
Unternehmen Rumpelkammer 68<br />
VI flying bomb (Fi 103) 62-70,74<br />
manned version 38,61,69,11<br />
V2 ballistic missile (A4 rocket) 61,<br />
73,75,77-82,83<br />
compared to 'Wasserfall' SAM<br />
105-6<br />
V80 submarine 131-2<br />
Verdun 110<br />
Versailles Treaty 6,71<br />
Visol 82, 107<br />
Vogt, Richard 26, 43<br />
Voigt, Woldemar 13,25<br />
Volksjäger (People's Fighter) 22^4<br />
VTOL (Vertical Take-Off <strong>and</strong> L<strong>and</strong>ing)<br />
aircraft 57<br />
Wagner, Herbert 88<br />
'Wagner bars' 88, 102<br />
Walter, Hellmuth I31-2<br />
Walter RI-203 rocket 37<br />
<strong>War</strong>spite, HMS 93<br />
Welter, Kurt 15<br />
Wendel, Fritz 14<br />
Weser-Flugzeugbau 56<br />
Wiener Neustadler Flugzeugwerke<br />
(WNF) 59<br />
Wocke, Hans 19,22,33<br />
Wulf, Georg 54<br />
W<strong>and</strong>erwaffen. 6-7<br />
Wurfgranate (Spreng) 87<br />
xylyl bromide 141<br />
Yokosuka, MXY7 'Ohka' 69, 71<br />
Z-St<strong>of</strong>f 37, 66. 77<br />
'Zaunkönig' acoustic seeker 130<br />
Zeppelin 'Rammer' 41<br />
Zindel, Ernst 33<br />
'Zitterrochen' missile 99<br />
'Ziu' howitzer 114<br />
'Zossen' device 87